Quarter-Life Crisis: The Everyday Adventures of Assistantzor
by Randomsaurus
Summary: When Kate White is fired from her PA job, she buries her head in the sand by going to visit her sister and comes across a certain little lost shih-tzu on her travels. A very eventual Toby/OC.
1. Prologue

**Author's Notes:**

Rah! I've had this idea in my head for a while now and due to hitting a megamundo writer's block on some of my other projects, I've given in and decided to have fun with it. The follow and review buttons are around here somewhere, please hit 'em and tell me what you think!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. iPhone, Youtube and Minecraft do not _Sponsor!_ this prologue.

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**Quarter-Life Crisis: The Everyday Adventures of Assistantzor**

**Prologue. . .**

Standing a few feet back from the cluster of teenagers that surrounded their equally enthusiastic subject of affection, I shifted the bundle of bits and bobs held in my arms so I could swipe my finger across the dormant screen of the iPhone that was nestled on top of the stack. The digital clock showed we had less than five minutes to make it through the maze of corridors to the main conference room where today's circus of vloggers, online jokers, gamers and many other wonders of Youtube would take place.

"Toby?" I craned my neck hoping to catch his eye.

The bundle of papers, flyers, packets of slap-bracelets, a chunky personal organiser and my trusty smartphone sort to slip through my arms as I lifted my heels from the ground to peer over heads. I fumbled and hugged the items to my chest to prevent them from falling.

"You have a Creeper hat! That's _awesome_!" he gleefully greeted one young fan, bouncing slightly on the balls of his feet. He was like an excitable puppy. I swear, sometimes Gryphon was more obedient than him.

"Toby," I called again.

He quickly bowed his head as he concentrated on signing the hem of the girl's green 'Tobuscus' t-shirt.

"_Toby!_" His head snapped up. A few fans peered over their shoulders, startled at the authority lacing my tone.

"'Sup, gurl? Whatcha want?" he beamed in a faux 'gangsta' voice, one of the very many that graced his comedic arsenal. The humorous twang worked as it quickly caused the puzzled glances cast over shoulders to return their attention back to him once more, a chorus of giggles rising from the group.

"We have to go. The Q&A starts at two, its 13:56!"

"Aw man, it's that time already?" His hand went to his crop of messy hair in disappointment. I could sense his reluctance to leave the gathering due to his want to please them. In all fairness they had given him a warm welcoming with their homemade banner and many of them sporting brightly coloured t-shirts boasting his logo.

"Yep, let's get a move on." I urged, jerking my chin in the general direction of our destination due to my hands being full.

"Hey, you guys are gonna come too, right?" he asked the miniature mob. Some bobbed heads, flashing wristbands of certain colours that allowed them to attend such shows yet the majority shook their heads in disenchantment, probably regretting opting for the cheaper day passes. That winning, contagious smile of his bloomed further- an indicator he had come up with a solution for the scattering of downcast expressions- and he announced, "Alright, let's roll and those of you who can't get in go see my Assistantzor, she'll hook you up with some _sweet_ slap-bracelets!" With that he took off, gliding along the tiled floor of the lobby on those ridiculous sneakers with wheels in the heels, hollering out a shrill, '_Wheeeew!'_ as he went.

"Toby, do you even know where the main conference hall is?" I called as he sailed passed me.

"Pffft! 'Course I do- it's around here somewhere." He casually pointed to the corridor that led from the foyer.

"Toby!" I turned and watched him go, flagged by the flood of fans.

My annoyance came out in a weary huff. I doubt I had enough slap-bracelets on me to dish out. I noticed a girl pause at my side though her attention wasn't to the loon halfway down the corridor's stretch. I looked down at her to see her widened eyes scanning my features.

"Oh my _gosh!_ You're _Assistantzor?_" exclaimed the girl in the Creeper hat whose shirt Toby had been scrawling on earlier.

God, I hated that name.


	2. Chapter 1: How I met Gryphon and Toby

**Author's Notes:**

Awesome! Thanks for the favs and follows!:) Oh, also there will be much vagueness on L.A. and if you notice any phrases or words that are glaringly British let me know, cause my 'Americanisms' are pulled from sitcoms on the comedy channel! The follow and review buttons are around here somewhere, please hit 'em and tell me what you think!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. Starbucks, Cheetos and the Coffee Bean do not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

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**Chapter 1: How I met Gryphon... and Toby**

_**One year earlier...**_

The rattling roll of the suitcase's plastic wheels on the pavement accompanied my footsteps. I hitched up the thick strap of my holdall bag so it rested more comfortably against my shoulder as I strolled down the suburban street, the large suitcase trailing obediently at my heels like a square, squat companion.

It was a pleasant day in L.A., the usual humid smog absent from the summer's heat. There was even a light breeze playfully rustling the leaves of the towering palm trees that lined the road. It was the reason I had requested the taxi to drop me off in town so I could enjoy this wonderful day whilst I picked up a few things I had forgotten to pack in my hasty departure.

The little plastic carrier bag from my haul was carefully nestled on top of the suitcase. One of the items in its bowels was a cellophane packet of cookies. There was a custom between me and my sister, which was whenever we visited one another we came bearing baked goods. Seems as I hadn't had time to actually prepare any I had made do with store bought ones this time round.

Nerves were gnawing at the excitement of seeing my sister again. I would no doubt have to endure her bombardment of questions and concern. I pushed the worries aside with the help of memories of her cooking and cocktail making.

Due to today's cheery weather she probably would be waiting with a batch of Mojtios ready that we could enjoy in her immaculate garden. I just prayed she didn't serve them with that fretful frown she had picked up from our mother. The remembrance of the pleasant tang of mint and lime spurred my steps on.

It was as I moved to cross the road I saw him. A little dog. He was leisurely meandering along the pavement before pausing to lift his hind leg and pee up a parked car's tire, all the while oblivious to the human who had hesitated to glance around in search of his owner.

The street was quiet, its residents probably still slogging away at work or enjoying the afternoon sunshine elsewhere. He now trotted forward, his black noise skimming the ground as he went, snuffling at interesting new scents. He was a shih-tzu with a bushy curtain of hair that nearly masked his eyes and little teeth jutting out from his lower lip giving him a permanently disgruntled appearance.

He was now absentmindedly sniffing my stationary suitcase, probably debating whether this alien object would deem worthy enough to bear his mark.

"Hey, little guy." I crouched to pet him in order to distract him from the duties of marking his territory.

He scampered back a few paces at my touch, as if suddenly aware of my existence. Though spooked he stood at arm's length his fountain-like tail wagging in greeting. I noticed a simple black collar at his neck. "Come here, let's see if your address is on that thing." My hovering hand slowly moved to pet him again but he ducked away. "Figures."

I rose and scanned the street once more. It was still void of people. I looked down at him to see he was stood waiting expectantly. An idea flashing to mind, I rummaged through my shopping bag before I pulled out a small packet of artisan style cookies that I had bought when enjoying a coffee at Starbucks.

His ears pricked at the crackle of the packet. "Want some?" I stooped and offered up half of the cookie.

He happily gobbled down the treat and sat back awaiting more. I stretched out my hand and this time he didn't playfully flee my fingers. I fiddled with the collar so I could locate the dog tag that hung from it. The name imprinted into the little metal disc was a strange one.

"Gry-phon." I spoke the name slowly, testing out the peculiar spelling on my tongue.

I turned the tag over to look for an address or contact number to find it blank. I rewarded his patience by allowing him to wolf down the other half of the snack.

Straightening, I cast a final look up and down the street, dithering for a moment or two until I came upon a decision.

I couldn't just leave him. My sister's house wasn't far from here. I would coax him back to her place with the promise of more scraps of cookies. We could ring round the animal shelters to see if anyone had reported him missing. He seemed well looked after so no doubt his owner would be searching for him.

"Come on, Gryphon," I said brightly to the little dog as I started to walk once more.

He trotted alongside the suitcase as fast as his short legs could muster, his eyes fixated on the cellophane packet still clutched in my free hand. "Don't worry, we'll find your mommy! She's probably worried sick."

The front door swung open a bit too violently, sweeping back to meet the wall with a thwack, proof the nudge he had given it with his shoulder had been more forceful than needed. The slam caused him to cringe. He prayed the plaster hadn't been chipped by the impact of the door handle smacking it. The landlord would have his head and, more importantly, his security deposit if so.

He shuffled in, fumbling desperately to keep the collection of paper bags brimming with groceries in his arms. His keys clattered to the floor. Ignoring them for the time being, Toby quickly trundled to the kitchen, banging his shin on the coffee table as he passed through the living area.

"Son of a- owww!" he yelped, still continuing in his quest to the kitchen, his shamble now a jerky limp due to the pain flashing along his lower leg.

Finally in the kitchen, he dumped the bags down, spilling the contents of one carrier on the countertop. In hindsight it probably would have been easier to have made two trips from his car to bring in the shopping but laziness had spurred him on and besides he enjoyed a challenge every now and then.

Feeling victorious that the more delicate items such as the carton of eggs had survived their journey unscathed, he dug around in one of the paper bags to pull out a bag of dog treats.

"Gryphon!" he called, ripping it open. "Where you at?" Plucking out a dog biscuit in the shape of a bone he stepped into the living room once more, the sting of his bumped shin had now diminished down to a dull throb.

A quick glance around showed the shih-tzu was not on his usual bed, a black beanbag that dwelled in the corner near the French doors. Toby wandered through the room, stopping to pick up his keys and close the gaping front door. "Come out, come out where ever you are, you little nugget!" he said in a sing-song voice as he ambled through the house.

He did a full circuit of the single storey abode until he stood once more in the living area. "Come on, buddy! I've got a treat here with your name on it!" Actually, it had the brand's name embossed on it. Toby smirked at the fact that Gryphon wouldn't know the difference-it's not like he could read!

It was as he lingered listening hard for the clack of his dog's nails on the floor he suddenly noticed two things…

The roar of a chainsaw starting up cut through the quiet house (next door still had the gardeners round who were taking forever to complete their landscaping job).

The little doggy door at the French doors hadn't been locked.

He darted to the glass doors and hurriedly unlocked them before stepping out onto the decking that led to a small yet pleasant garden. His pint-sized buddy was nowhere in sight.

"Oh no, no, no," he mumbled as he noticed the hedge framing garden and acting as a small fence between it and the driveway had a shih-tzu sized hole burrowed in it, the soft dirt at its roots pawed at.

He had escaped! He hated loud noises (even his master's boisterous blathering as he played video games put him on edge). The ruckus of next door's landscaping must have freaked him out, caused him to bolt.

"Oh no, no, no!"

He sharply spun on his heel and raced through the house hastily locking doors as he went. He couldn't believe he had been stupid enough to forget to lock the doggy door! Toby had felt guilty about leaving the poor guy cooped up whilst he was out but he had had so many errands to do and he couldn't have really done them with his dog in tow.

With keys clutched in one hand, dog treat still in other, he jogged down the street instinctively hollering, "Gryphon!" every now and then.

Gryphon still scurried along beside me as we made our way along the street, passing the occasional cul-de-sac as we went. We weren't far now. I hoped Jen wouldn't mind my bringing an unexpected guest. Her house, though small, was always so well-kept and stylish, not the most ideal environment for pets.

He began to lag a little, his tongue flicking in and out of his mouth as he panted. I stopped so he could catch up, breaking off another piece of cookie as encouragement. As he contentedly crunched on the offering, a far off and slightly frantic call rang out.

"Gryphon! Gryphon!" I glanced down at my newly acquired friend to see he was too busy finishing the cookie to heed the cry of his own name.

Up ahead, still a ways off, a guy was barrelling down the street, his head jerking this way and that as he searched for any sign of his dog. I was quite surprised he was managing to run so fast in flip-flops. As he neared he spotted the shih-tzu sat at my feet. I guess I had assumed wrong about Gryphon's owner being a woman. Due to him being a lap dog breed I had thought his owner to be a woman who probably carried him around in her handbag everywhere she went.

"Gryphon!" There was relief wrapped around the word this time.

The dog peered over his shoulder, his tail wagging. The hard slap of the guy's impractical footwear slowed as his dash dwindled to a sloppy jog. He slackened to a stop breathing hard, red faced, and crumbled to his knees to pick up the pooch.

"There you are!" He smothered him in a brief bear-hug before pulling him away and lifting him slightly so the dog's elderly looking face was level from his own. "Don't you dare do that again, you little shi-" His eyes flickered up from Gryphon as he suddenly noticed I was stood watching them, fighting back the smirk that was pulling at my lips. "-tzu. You little shih-tzu, you." he amended, opting for a more innocent term.

Gryphon's grumpy face remained indifferent but his tail swished harder, as he suddenly noticed the scent of the dog biscuit that I could see was jutting from the guy's fingers.

Not only was his hands clutching his pet, he had the dog treat and a set of keys in his mitts.

"Oh my god, oh my god. Oh, thank you so much!" he gushed at me as he rose to his feet, still sounding out of breath.

"No problem." I smiled.

"My neighbour's having like a ton of work done to their garden and I think the noise caused him to flip and I had gone out to run errands and like a idiot forgot to lock his doggy door-" He scrabbled about so he could get a better grip on the dog and attempt to stuff the keys into the back pocket of his cargo shorts.

The dog biscuit fell to the pavement. I bowed to scoop it up and moved to hand it to him. He dipped his head in gratefulness as he watched Gryphon quickly swing his head round to accept the biscuit instead before he could even move to take it. His attention flitted back to me once more, probably noticing my amusement at his waffling he finished with, "-I swear, I'm a responsible owner really."

"I believe you. Although, you might want to put some contact details on his tag just in case he tries to make a break for it again anytime soon."

"But he's got one of those microchip-thingies."

"You can get tags that tell people that so they'll know to take him to shelter so that the staff there can scan the info off of it."

"Of course you can! I knew that, any responsible owner would," he chuckled almost self-consciously. There was a brief beat of silence then, he said, "I'm Toby." He shifted his pet so the dog was held in one arm and jutted out his hand.

Before I had chance to shake it, he noticed the dog hairs and crumbs decorating his fingers and quickly retracted it to wipe on the leg of his pants. Content it was clean, he returned it to his previous gesture. "And this here is Gryphon, but I guess you guys have already met so it's not like awkward or anything. Heck, I bet you guys are already on an informal nickname basis, maybe even got some inside jokes going on," He rambled as we shook hands.

Though the smile at my lips was still genuine I attempted to keep my eyebrows from rising in puzzlement. He was so peculiar. He dropped his hand to his side. "So…" I suddenly realised that this was a prompt to tell him my name.

"Kate."

"Kate. So Kate, listen, I don't know how to thank you for looking after him-"

"There's no need, really," I cut him off with a light tone, slightly shaking my head.

"Oh there is! I mean look at him, he's so not street smart like me. He could have got his dumb ass all up in a whole heap of trouble!"

"No really, it's fine. I was just on my way to my sister's place and he came wandering up the street a couple of blocks back."

"How'd you get him to follow you?"

"With help from these." I shook the half empty bag of cookies. Gryphon turned his head to peer back at me at the sound of the goodies.

"Ah, right." Toby nodded in understanding, his free hand moving to attempt to push back the hair that was now clinging to his clammy forehead. "He's a sucker for human food. I buy him all the expensive, gourmet doggy treats and what does he want? Junk food!" Noticing my smile broaden he enthusiastically elaborated. "Seriously. One night, I was eating a bag of Cheetos whilst watching a film and fell asleep. Couple of hours later, I wake up and I'm covered in Cheeto dust, the bag's empty, there's a trail of half eaten chips leading to his bed and he's sat there wagging his tail and trying so hard to pull this innocent, 'it wasn't me' look despite the fact he now has a face like a Oompa Lumpa!"

I chuckled, imagining the grouchy-faced Gryphon with a bright orange face.

"If he likes them so much why don't you just buy them instead?"

"Have you seen all the additives that's in those things? They look radioactive for a reason. You wouldn't want him all hyped up on sugar and artificial flavourings, trust me, it ain't pretty! And besides, I'm a responsible dog owner, remember?" he grinned.

"Clearly." Another pause as he attempted to still his pooch that had grown restless of being held. "Well, nice to meet you, Gryphon." I reached forward to ruffle the fur on his head. "You too, Toby. I better get a move on, my sister's expecting me." I hitched up the holdall once more.

"Whoa, wait! Lemme get those for you." Before I could even politely pass up his offer, he seized the bag's strap and carefully tugged it off my shoulder with his dog-free hand.

Slinging the strap over his shoulder, being mindful not to drop poor Gryphon, he then motion for me to hand over the handle of the suitcase.

"Oh it's okay, I can manage-"

"Nah-uh, ain't having none of that, sister. You helped Gryphon now I get to help you." He sensed my hesitation. "I promise I'm not gonna run off with your stuff. I'm all done with running for today. As you can probably tell, running isn't my forte."

"No, no it's not that, I was just wondering if you could manage carrying all my things. I don't want you dropping Gryphon." I tugged the suitcase forward so the handle was in his reach.

"No sweat, I got it," he reassured, the corner of his mouth curving in a self-confident smile. He took hold of the handle. With his dog, my holdall and suitcase in his grip he turned to start walking. I fell in pace at his side, feeling lighter thanks to no longer being weighed down with my luggage. He cast a quick sideways glance at me. "So where does your sister live?"

"Not far from here, pretty much just around that corner and down the block." I gestured with a vague flick of my hand.

"Sounds like she lives near me." Another sly sidelong glance, this time a little longer as he took in the breezy little sundress and flat pumps I was sporting. "You visiting her on vacation?"

"Yeah, kinda. I recently got some time off work and decided to come and see her, haven't really seen much of her this year." I stretched the truth slightly. The time off I had been given at work was permanent and I only had myself to blame for that one.

"You're from out of town then?"

"No, actually, I live all the way across town, which is kind of why I've been a bit lazy with my visits, but she wanted me to stay with her for a little while so we could catch up." Another slight fib. I was 'vacationing' at Jen's because I could no longer stay at the apartment I shared with my fiancé, ex-fiancé. I had brought that one on myself also.

"Yeah, vacationing out of town is so over rated. So is visiting other countries- they don't even speak English there and the food's all weird and they don't get my sense of humour at all." Another chuckle.

"You speaking from experience there?"

"Did a tour round Europe once." Though he was trying his hardest to play down how pleased he was by this accomplishment I caught snags of it in his tone.

"Tour?"

He jerked to a stop and looked at me, that good-natured grin still on his lips.

"Not trying to sound like a total prima donna, but-" his voice swiftly shifted to a very effeminate pitch with a slight lisp, "Don't you know who I am?" He accompanied it with a dramatic hair flip for emphasis. I fought back another smile so that my blank expression answered his question. "Oh wait! Maybe it's 'cause you can't see my t-shirt." He moved Gryphon so the unfortunate dog was now tucked under his arm in a similar fashion as to how you'd carry a rolled up newspaper. Gryphon didn't look amused by his owner's antics. "How 'bout now, eh?"

I looked over the turquoise t-shirt that was stippled with white dog hairs. There was a logo printed across the chest in chunky stone effect font. It read: 'Tobuscus'.

"Sorry, still none the wiser."

"Meh, worth a shot." He shrugged light-heartedly, rearranged his dog to get better grip of him once more and started walking again. "So, you picked the perfect time to vacation here, L.A.'s really nice this time of year. You should go see the Hollywood boulevard and other touristy stuff," he jabbered, still leaving me clueless as to who he was and what the importance of Tobuscus was. Perhaps it was a play on his name or something.

"Like visit the Getty museum?" I quipped, playing along.

"Yeah, or there's a Coffee Bean round the corner that does an awesome iced Americano, that's pretty impressive too."

"Sounds exotic."

"It's a local delicacy."

Turning down the familiar street, I spotted my sister's house.

"There's my stop." I pointed out the charming white walled house that had window boxes boasting a selection of summer blooms framing its exterior.

"No way. No frickin' way!" he said, the astonishment making his voice raise a few notches in volume.

"What? Do you know her or something?" A part of me quickly wondered if Jen knew what 'Tobuscus' was.

"She's my neighbour. That's my house." He pointed to the dwelling sat beside my sister's. The house pretty much a replica of its neighbour's minus the flower boxes and ostentatious door-knocker.

I suddenly noticed the van parked in front Jen's house. It had 'Los Hermanos Jiménez, Jardineros.' written in black font, accompanied by a logo of a flower and shovel underneath.

I guess Jen had grown bored with her garden's layout. Though I suppose it was no surprise, she was always redecorating the house. It looked like we wouldn't be enjoying Mojitos in the garden after all.


	3. Chapter 2: Howdy Neighbour!

**Author's Notes:**

Woo! Thanks for the favs and follows and thank you to _crackerduck_ for the review! :)

You may notice I jump about a bit between 1st and 3rd person narrative but that's just a habit I've picked up because I'm still trying to decide which I actually prefer to write so sorry if it's distracting. I also opted to use 3rd for Toby's POV because, well, I can only speculate what he's like when the camera's not rolling!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. I do own Kate, my OC. Just Dance and Slenderman do not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

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**Chapter 2: Howdy Neighbour!**

Toby and I said our goodbyes outside Jen's house whilst he handed my bags over to me. He strolled along to his own home cheerily calling over his shoulder,

"Thanks again. Oh, and I owe you some cookies."

"No need, I still have half a packet left."

"Fine, I owe you half a packet then." He grinned whilst he opened the front door. With that he went inside.

I turned and took a deep breath in hope to compose myself before pushing the doorbell. The melodic chime echoed through the house. The door swept open to reveal a woman in her thirties with her hair neatly scraped back from her face in a bun, wearing a simple pair of chinos and a white camisole. Jen, my older sister, always looked effortlessly well turned-out even if she was just hanging around the house.

"Hi! Where on earth have you been? I though you said you'd be here for 3 O'clock." She stepped aside and held the door so I could shuffle in.

"Sorry. I am kind of late, huh?" I shrugged off my bag and placed it beside the suitcase. As soon as I was rid of it she pulled me into a quick but caring hug, and then held me out at arm's length as her dark eyes quickly scanned my features. She had probably been expecting the red-eyed, snivelling mess that had called yesterday frantically begging her to let me stay over in between snotty sobs. She seemed confused by the calm manner which was coming from me now.

"So, you going to tell me about this or are we going to skirt around the problem like we normally do?"

"I see you've got the gardeners round. Did you get bored of redoing the perfectly furbished house and decided to focus on the already perfect garden instead?" I asked, attempting to keep the sheepishness from my tone.

"I thought so," she sighed. "Come on, bring your things through. The guestroom's all set up for you." She picked up the holdall and walked me through the house.

I noticed the stylish living room had yet again changed colour scheme since I was here last and she had finally got that range cooker she had been hankering for since forever fitted in the kitchen. The huge stove and equally elegant extractor above it sat proudly in the centre of the stretched of granite countertop, clearly the focal point for the whole kitchen. Through the living room came the sound of gardening equipment at work. I caught a glimpse of the garden through the set of French doors. The once picturesque setting had now been reduced to a building site- soil, rubble and grass everywhere.

"The work's taking longer than expected," Jen moaned as we continued on. "You kind of get used to the noise though." I thought of poor little Gryphon. I don't think he was going to ever get used to this racket.

She opened the door to the guestroom and gestured for me to enter uttering, "I'll let you get settled. Don't take too long, there's some Margaritas waiting."

"Thanks. Oh, almost forgot! Here." I handed her the half eaten packet of cookies. "Sorry, I didn't really have time to make anything."

"Well, they'll make a refreshing change from the charred things you normally bring round here," she joked, accepting my merger offering. She left, pulling the door to.

The guestroom was the room that got redecorated the most. Every time I stayed it was decked in a totally different style- one time minimalistic, the other shabby chic, the next retro- it was like the room itself had a multi-personality disorder. Most visitors would think Jen was just interested in the current trends in interior design but I had an inkling she was really attempting to distract herself from the thing she wanted most. A baby. She and Greg had been trying for a little one for a long time now, even attempting a stint of IVF but to no avail. She was doing what she had always done when she had failed in achieving something- pour all of her attention into another project. It was the same thing through high school. She had failed to make the cheerleading squad and instead ploughed through art club sessions until her group's work was featured in an exhibition at our local art gallery. There was even a brief article about it in the local paper.

I laid the suitcase down on the floorboards that had been stained so they looked antique and up-zipped it. After unloading all my clothes into a wardrobe that looked as if it could lead to Narnia, I flopped onto the cushy bed. My eyes caught sight of the quaint bedside table. There was an analogue alarm clock and two photo frames that mounted familiar pictures. One was of my parents when they were younger, newlyweds on holiday. Mom and Dad sat at some bar with exotic looking drinks complete with the miniature paper umbrellas, each sporting a blush of sunburn across their noses whilst beaming at the camera. The other was a photo of me and Jen when we were kids, sat on the doorstep of our family home. Jen had her hair tidily pulled into a braid and sported a small smirk and me perched beside her, my hair loose, eyes creased in mirth and mouth flashing an overly cheesy grin, a baby tooth missing. She was probably twelve, me six. We had often been told we looked so alike, both with dark hair and brown eyes, pale skin and full lips, tall and wiry. The only difference between us now was that Jen's face had donned a few laughter lines around her eyes and I had a smattering of freckles across our family's distinguishable button nose. I picked up the photo frame and rolled onto my front whilst attempting to recall what we were laughing at. My mind came up blank.

* * *

Toby stretched and yawned, something dully cracked and he was unsure if it had been his jaw or his shoulders. God, he was getting old. His impromptu mad dash earlier probably hadn't helped and was partly accountable for his current haggardness. He really needed to exercise more. Maybe he'd sign up to the gym, do some cardio and drink those gross looking seaweed shakes everyone was always going on about. Or maybe not. He could just up his Just Dance gaming, that would be pretty much the same thing, right?

He pulled himself up from the couch where he had opted to edit today's recordings of gameplay, being careful to set the laptop down on the coffee table. He trudged into the kitchen and flicked on the light. Being a creature of habit, Gryphon always associated his entering the kitchen to be linked with some kind of treat receiving and so he jumped up from his bed and scrambled after his master, his tail wagging hard. The kitchen offered up a reminder that Toby had forgotten to do something. The shopping he had so triumphantly brought in single-handedly earlier still remained on the countertop unpacked.

"Uuuugh!" he groaned in annoyance. It was nearing midnight. He really couldn't be bothered to start putting all this stuff away. Luckily none of his groceries had been frozen and so they could stand another couple of hours sat atop the counter until he could gear himself up enough to organise it. There never seemed enough hours in the day to get all these tedious little jobs done as well as make his usual collection of humorous videos, gameplay videos and- "God dang it!"

He had almost forgotten to vlog. He quickly pulled out his phone from his pocket and jabbed at it, rousing it from its digital sleep. The battery life was pretty low but nothing he couldn't work with. He got the video recorder up and running before sitting his phone down on the countertop so it was looking at a carrier that had toppled over, its contents scattered.

"Audience! Wha-? What are you doing looking at the shopping that I _still_ haven't put away because I'm lazy?" He picked up the phone and turned it round. "Huh? What's that? You'll do it for me?" He grinned and quickly covered the tiny camera lens with his finger loudly announcing, "Intro of Darkness, then Redness, then Whiteness!" After the lens flare had subsided and the camera was once more able to do its thing he continued. "Actually, I have an excuse for it and its _riiiight_ here." He pointed the phone down at Gryphon who was sat at his feet his tail brushing back and forth on the linoleum in anticipation for his treat. "Gryphon, buddy, you gonna tell them what you did? Tell them all about the lil' adventure you had today that nearly gave me a freakin' heart attack. Come on, tell them! Tell them, you tell it sooo well. He tells it so well." He whirled the camera round once more. "So I get home after going to the store to buy groceries and I can't find him anywhere. Normally he's always on his beanbag throne either sleeping or humping stuff but not today. I'm looking for him all over the house and suddenly I notice the doggy door's open. He's not outside though, well not in the garden anyway. Turns out next door _still_ have the noisy garden force round and the noise freaked him out and made him re-enact the Great Escape, and tunnel out through the hedge in the back yard! Seriously, it looks like a bunny on steroids ploughed through it! I'd show you it but its waaay too dark out 'cause it's like midnight and I'm tired but it's there, oh trust me, it's definitely there.

So anyway, I end up running down the street looking for him and, dude, I was running so frickin' fast. I was running so fast it was like I had Slenderman chasing me! And where do I find him? A couple of blocks away sat eating cookies with this girl and 'cause he's a cool individual he just looks over his shoulder at me like," he quickly changed his voice to the dweeby little drawl that he so often used for voicing his dog's witticisms, "'Oh, Toby, there you are, how nice of you to join us.' like he was totally expecting me to come chasing after him like a sweaty madman." He rattled off a bark of laughter. "Wait, what? I don't sweat, that's gross. No seriously, I don't sweat at all- look, see!" He lifted his free arm up to flash the camera a glimpse of his armpit, the material dry. "And I'm thanking the girl and she's all like, 'Oh it's no biggy, he just followed me'. Dude, I think he was cruising for a new owner. Was that what you were doing Gyphzor?" The camera got another shot of the shih-tzu who had now switched to prancing in hopes of a reward. "Oh yeah, you love me now dontcha? You little deserter, you!

Turns out he was only following her because she gave him a cookie." He laughed again rubbing his face and trailing his hand through his hair in tiredness. "The way to Gryphon's heart is through cookies- chocolate free though 'cause otherwise he'd get a _twummy_ ache. But yeah, lots and lots of cookies. He's only in the kitchen with me now because he's after a dang biscuit." Toby flipped the phone round to show the cute canine was up on his hind legs, his paws resting on Toby's leg. "Nope, no treat for you dude, call it puppy punishment, it's the only way you're gonna learn- oh screw it, you can have one little treat!" He filmed himself reaching for a dog biscuit and handing it over to the eager Gryphon. As the dog devoured the biscuit in record time, Toby once more pointed the phone at himself. "What? Don't judge my parenting skills. I mean, come on, how could anyone say no to that little nugget?"

After that he went through the usual chit-chat of which gaming videos he had been working on as well as mentioning his upcoming Tobuscus projects and wrapped thing's up with the outro of 'Darkness, Redness, Whiteness' and a loud 'Boop!'. Turning the phone's recorder off, he sighed.

"That'll do. Better go finish editing and upload this thing." He returned to the living room, the drink he had originally gone in the kitchen for long forgotten.

* * *

I awoke much later than usual feeling like I hadn't rested at all. My eyes still felt sore and heavy and worries were still lurking at the corners of my mind slowly churning away. I dragged myself out of bed and went about the same old ritual of showering and making myself presentable for the day, pulling on another lightweight sundress to ward off the sweltering heat that was already present despite the clock only just ticking past 9.00 am. I left my feet bare, pale yellow nail polish being the only thing dressing them, and hair pulled into a high pony tail seems as it was just too long to leave down in this temperature. I padded through the house with a yawn. In the kitchen the aroma of coffee greeted me along with a note on the countertop.

'Good morning!

The gardener's will be here for 10.00am and will be here until 5.00pm. They should know what they've got to get done today but if not contact me on my work's number. Greg and I will be home for about 5.30pm. There's plenty of coffee and food and the laptop's been charged up too- I thought you'd want to job hunt.

See you later!

Your lovely, amazing sister. :P'

I poured some coffee into a mug and wandered through into the lounge when something over in the dining room caught my attention. It was an old piano sat against the wall. The lid was open as if in invitation. I paced over to it, the fingers of one hand strayed from clutching the mug to glide along the smooth ivory keys. A smile tugged at my lips. It looked very similar to the one Mom and Dad used to have. The countless hours Jen and I had had to endure piano lessons sat before that battered thing hammering out classical pieces. I wondered if Jen still played. My trailing fingers pushed down on a key, producing a clear high note to ring out in the stillness of the house. Discarding the mug on the dining table, I pulled back the small stool sat in front of the piano and plonked myself down. My hands placed at certain points of the stretch of keys.

It had been a while since I had played and my first attempts were clumsy but once I got into the flow of it, the tune took form, my fingers moving as if from muscle memory from all those years of practice. My playing was soon interrupted by the loud whirl of a garden appliance being fired up. I sighed and rose from my perch. Picking up my coffee, I went to the French doors to see the Jiménez brothers hard at work in their green overalls. The elder of the two spotted me and gave an amiable waved. I waggled my hand in return and pointed at the mug in my other hand, in question if they'd like some coffee. He gave me a happy nod and thumbs up in response. I went back into the kitchen to prepare the drinks, taking a sip of my own coffee only to find it had long grown cold.

"Aquí tienes, caballeros, (_Here you go, gentlemen,_)" I called cheerfully over the whine of a weed wacker, placing the two mugs on a small wrought iron table along with sugar and a little jug of milk.

"Muchas gracias. Eres la hermanita, no? (_Thank you. You're the little sister, aren't you?_)" asked the elder brother as he killed the power on the noisy machine.

"Si. Jennifer esta trabajando hoy entonces si ti necesitas algo estoy aquí todo la día. (_Yes. Jennifer is working today so if you need anything I'm here all day_.)"

"Muy bien. (_Very good._)"

A few hours later I was sat at the dining table with the laptop, scanning through the jobs available on certain websites. There was nothing that paid as well as my last job, being a personal assistant to the CEO of Richmonds industries. My mind drifted back to last night and Jen's endless stream of questions for every utterance that I served up.

_"Personal misconduct? What did you do? It's not like you could have done the old cliché of sleeping with your boss, she's a woman," she joked._

_"Actually, it was the slightly less clichéd but equally as bad sleeping with the boss' husband," I mumbled into the salt rimmed glass before taking a sip of the Margarita._

_"Oh." _

That had shut her up.

I pushed out a heavy sigh from deep in my chest and closed the laptop shut, killing off the Foo Fighter's track that had been blaring through headphones in hope to drown out the contestant roar of work tools. It was then I heard it, the fading chime of the doorbell. I hesitated a moment wondering if my ears had been tricked by the abrupt end of the music, causing it to hear things. The pause stretched out for a few moments before the doorbell rang again. I got up and walked through to the hallway. After fiddling with keys to unlock it, I pulled the door open to see the guy from yesterday.

"Howdy neighbour!" he beamed. He looked different today, probably because he wasn't sweaty or bushed from running around searching for his lost dog. He was dressed in a pair of dark cargo-shorts, a maroon t-shirt (this time there was no 'Tobuscus' text gracing it) and flip-flops. There was a pair of bright yellow framed sunglasses sat atop his head, the lenses peeking out from his untidy brown hair. I couldn't really tell if that messy, bed-head style had been painstakingly sculpted or was just a product of restless night's sleep. "Just doing the neighbourly thing of warning you that I'm gonna call the cops about all this noise pollution that's coming from your place at this ungodly hour of-" he glanced at his watch, "11:47 am!"

"Hey. Yeah, according to my sister you get used to it after a while though."

"I don't think he's gonna get used to it." I glanced down to see Gryphon stood trembling at Toby's feet, a colourful dog leash attached to his collar. I bent down to pet his cowering head. "Thought I'd better take him out before he decides to pull another Houdini escape trick. I was going for coffee, want to come with? I really think I should buy you one for taking care of him yesterday." I straightened once more noticing I was only a few inches shorter than him.

"Sorry, can't. I'm stuck playing project manager." I gestured behind me to the chaos in the back yard.

"Oh. No problemo! I'll just bring you one back. What d'ya want?"

"It's okay, you don't have to," I politely reassured.

"But I'm gonna cause I'm nice like that. So?"

"Hmmm." I thought for a brief moment unsure what to request, there was always so many different kinds at those coffee chains. "Surprise me," I smiled.

"You may regret saying that." There was mischief in the smirk he flashed in response.


	4. Chapter 3: Poopzilla

**Author's Notes:**

Yay, more fav, follows and reviews! I'm glad you guys are interested in this. :)

This chapter does jump around a bit mainly because I wanted to show passing of time and still have plenty of Toby moments. The follow and review buttons are around here somewhere, please hit 'em and tell me what you think!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/ Tobuscus or Gryphon. Facebook, Skype and Claritin do not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Poopzilla**

Mid-morning coffee with Toby became a frequent thing. Though it didn't happen every day (probably because he had a job of his own to concentrate on) when the doorbell would chime at this time of day I found myself smiling as I went to open the door. It was a refreshing reprieve from having to deal with all the troubles and guilt that now constantly whirled in the back of my mind.

A few days later, we were sat on the doorstep, shoulder to shoulder, plastic cups rattling with the floating ice that chilled them. Him with his sunglasses on, me squinting up at the sky and Gryphon milling about on his leash still unnerved by the noise that was coming from the back yard. I had to admit I liked his company. It broke up the otherwise uneventful stretch of hours that made up my new daily routine.

"So what job are you vacationing from?" he asked, straw pushed to one side of his mouth.

"PA for the CEO of Richmonds industries."

"Sounds exhausting, no wonder you're on vacation."

"What 'bout you? You don't seem to have the usual 9 to 5 work routine." I had wondered what he did for a living. He was always on his phone, either texting or taking calls. There was always a constant stream of visitors, most of them more or less the same age as him and he was out and about a lot too. When I had mentioned my new acquaintance to Jen she had pulled a face of disapproval.

_"He's a strange one, that guy."_

_"Why?"_

_"He's always really loud in the evenings, as if shouting at the TV or something and he walks around talking to his phone. I mean actually talking to his phone not taking a phone call." She mimicked him, holding out her arm away from her, phone in hand. _

_"He's probably Facetiming people or something," I shrugged._

_"His dog's got a weird name too. Orc or Elf or Griffin or some kind of Dungeons and Dragons name."_

_"Gryphon. It's spelt G-R-Y-P-H-O-N, not sure why."_

_"See. He's strange." _

That had been the end of the discussion.

I turned to look at him. He was fussing Gryphon, whilst taking a long slurp of his coffee.

"I work from home, doing different stuff, mainly computer based work," he mumbled quickly before changing the subject. "Hey, check this out!" He put his cup to one side and got to his feet, handing me Gryphon's leash.

He jogged out onto the street and up the road slightly. I leaned forward a fraction puzzled as to what he was up to. Suddenly he came charging back along the asphalt except he wasn't running. He was gliding. A glance at his feet showed there were wheels in the heel of his sneakers. He rolled by, nonchalantly waving as he went. A car sped past him, starling him and causing him to slam to a stop. A giggle bubbled from my lips. I had never met anyone like him before. He had the carefree and unselfconscious attitude of a child at times.

* * *

Toby was awoken well before the blare of the alarm. He lazily cracked open an eye and squinted at the alarm clock to see it was displaying 9:12 am. Its cheery green digital numbers irked him instantly. It was as if they were taunting him. He groaned and rolled onto his back an arm extended and groping for his phone. If he was awake he might as well start to go through the backlog of e-mails and texts that had no doubt built up overnight.

It was as he was scrolling away he heard the noise that had stirred him from sleep. Surprisingly, it wasn't the deafening whirl of gardening equipment. It was the sound of someone playing the piano. He frowned, lowering his phone and focused his attention upon the music. It was muffled somewhat by the walls of the house but it softly echoed out as the melody formed. He could tell it was definitely being performed seems as it didn't sound as flat as it would if someone was merely listening to a piano piece. There were also slight pauses, hesitations, as if the player was attempting to remember the next sequence of notes. The music itself was a classical piece, probably Chopin judging from the light and sweet tones.

He listened for a while recalling how he had slogged through countless lessons on the piano as well as guitar whilst growing up. As the song built to a complicated crescendo the player fumbled, hitting a few bum notes before giving up, a dull flat tone ringing out as their hands slapped the keys in defeated.

"Woo! Now play some Creed!" he called out. Silence. "Pffft. Music snob," he chuckled, picking up his phone once more.

* * *

Another day. It was slightly overcast, the heat thick and soupy. Our conversation had dwindled somewhat due to his smartphone beeping. He was now hunched over it rapidly typing out some message, his face scrunched up in concentration. Once the task had been complete he stuffed the phone back into his pocket.

"Sorry, that was kinda rude of me, huh? Hey, do you do social networking, like Facebook, Twitter and all that stuff?"

"I have an account but we're always discouraged by the company to post too much stuff on them, afraid it'll affect the company image if their employees are pictured being drunk and disorderly. I used to handle some of the press releases and notifications for Richmond's accounts though."

"So they're allowed to use it daily, but their employees aren't?" he snorted.

"That kind of networking's a big part of the business nowadays it seems, there's even a blog. I did some posts for that too."

"You blog?"

"Only for the company and it was only on the odd occasion when the advertising team were too busy with other projects."

"They'll have you vlogging next."

"Vlogging?"

"Like a blog but a video. You go on Youtube at all?"

"Not really. Isn't it all cat videos and stuff that looks like it should be on a clip show?" He laughed at that, nearly chocking on his coffee.

"Yeah, yeah there's plenty of that. There's plenty of vloggers too." There was a pause. He coughed a few times in attempt to recover from inhaling his drink. A car rolled past. "You play video games?"

"Not since I was a kid." I shook my head, my ponytail swishing.

"Then what do you do when you're not at work?" he asked, seeming baffled by how one would spend their time if it wasn't blasting things on a computer screen.

"Usual stuff: socialise, watch tv, read, play piano."

"Ah, gotcha," he nodded. "So you're the one waking me up at stupid O'clock playing piano every morning."

"Guilty." A sheepish smile quickly took form. "Although, 9:00 am is a perfectly respectable time."

"Not if you don't go to sleep until 2, 3 in the morning."

"Perhaps you should cut back on the caffeine then."

"Ha! Never!" He took a long, smug sip of his drink for emphasis.

* * *

I stood in the kitchen, staring at the phone mounted onto the wall as if it would bite me if I moved to touch it. I had been rooted to the spot for a while now, dithering whether or not to call. I had tried a couple of times before yet to no avail. Jen had suggested backing off for a while to give Ben some time to come to terms with shit storm that had recently blown through our relationship.

I shuffled forward and plucked it from its cradle. Jabbing in the familiar number of my apartment, I exhaled a breath that had been snagged in my lungs for what seemed like an eternity as I listened to it ring. It's beeping drew out mockingly, each ring going unanswered until finally the answer machine clicked on. The recording of my own voice brightly informed, 'Hey, Ben and Kate aren't in right now so leave a message and we'll get back to you!' I hung up before the beep could shrilly punctuate the recording.

I picked it up again and rang his cell phone only to be rewarded with a pre-recorded robotic tone of the answer machine of his phone company stating to leave a voicemail. Sighing, I returned the phone to its cradle.

It had been over a week since I had fled. The day I had left I had never seen him like that before. His usual upbeat persona had wilted and his handsome features drawn in a mixture of anger and anguish. Ben and I had been together since college. I had met him at a Halloween party on campus. I had finished my shift at the bar I worked at and had gone to catch-up with my friends not really expecting to be out all night. He had been drunk and dressed as a Smurf and had asked why I had chosen to dress up as a waitress.

I glanced down at my hand absentmindedly fiddling with the simple engagement ring, my sight becoming filmy due to brimming tears.

God, I was such an idiot.

* * *

Toby waited on the porch, his attention to the street, hands shoved into his pockets. Gryphon hadn't really paid much notice to the racket coming from the back garden due to him currently being too occupied in sniffing the potted plants that flanked the front door. The sound of the scrape of keys unlocking the lock caused him to turn. Kate pulled open the door, greeting him with a smile. Her hair was loose today, showing off how long it was seems as it hung past her shoulders.

"Morning." He shoved his sunglasses back so they sat on his head. "This is some serious vacation time you're taking. Every time I call round here I keep expecting you've gone back to work." It had been just over two weeks since she had chanced across his dog, resulting in them meeting. Her smile faulted slightly as she moved to lean against the doorframe.

"Well, technically I never stated I was actually on vacation, you just assumed so because I had said I was visiting Jen."

"So you're not on vacation?"

"Let's just say I was asked to take an indefinite vacation from working for Richmonds."

"Oooh." The hand that wasn't holding Gryphon's leash went up to the back of his head. "Dude, that sucks." She lifted her shoulder in a small shrug. "Crap, and I was asking all about what you did there," he cringed.

"Don't worry 'bout it. I guess I should have come clean sooner."

"Ugh." The hand that was at his head was absentmindedly ruffling his already untidy hair. He quickly opted to shift the subject to an easier topic. "You'll need coffee then. You know, for job hunting. Lots and lots of coffee- like a freaking bucket full. I'll go get some!" He pushed his sunglasses so they slid back down on to his face.

"Good idea but maybe get a decaf for yourself, eh?"

"Only if it comes in a manly form of decaffeination. I'd hate to undo all my hard work of looking this masculine if I roll up and ask for a sissy decaf drink." He gestured with a theatrical sweep of the hand at himself and his pooch when speaking of his image. This caused the smirk at her lips to bloom further.

"Ah, right, caffeine intake is in correlation to manliness." Her voice was playful.

"Damn straight. Now excuse me whilst I fetch said manly beverages." He flashed a grin before turning on his heel and strolling off, his dog trotting after him.

Toby enjoyed the days he walked to the Coffee Bean as Gryphon could tag along and that way he was killing two birds with one stone. The shih-tzu halted by a tree and proceeded to snuffle around its roots, taking in the scents of other dogs. As he waited for the dog to go through the usual routine of peeing he mulled over the conversation he and Kate had just had.

He had thought it odd she'd bring so much stuff with her just to visit her sister. He had noticed the engagement ring on her finger as well over the course of their coffee mornings. A part of him wondered why she was staying with family if she was engaged. Surely someone who's at that point in their relationship would be living with their other-half. His mind muddled the speculation on his new acquaintance's marital status with his own trip back to 'Singleville'. He swiftly shut that trail of thought off with a sigh. Why was it every time he thought he was coming to terms with him and Olga it would unexpectedly jump out from the fringes of his mind to slap him upside the head?

Glancing down at Gryphon he saw the little dog was sat waiting patiently for them to start walking once more.

"Geez, dude, hold your horses." He remarked before beginning to move once more.

* * *

Music blaring, coffee sat at my elbow and fingers hacking the keys of my laptop I once more delved into the chore of trying to find a job. It was as I was scrolling through the list of available occupations, the Skype programme popped up, it's melodic ringing cutting off the thunderous blues of The Black Keys.

"Crap." It was Mom and Dad's account. No doubt Jen had blabbed about my stupidity to them.

I dithered, very much wanting to ignore the call. They had relocated to southern Spain when I had finished college after falling in love with the culture on many of our family trips there. I'd visit once or twice a year, usually around Thanks Giving or Christmas but thanks to things like Skype we could easily keep in touch until then. I sighed and accepted the call. The video flicked on to show my Mom sat at a glass desk in the back room of the clothing boutique she owned.

"Hi, honey. Where have you been? I've been calling all morning."

"Hey. Yeah, sorry, I'm stuck babysitting Jen's gardeners," I smiled apologetically. There was a slight pause. "I guess Jen told you, huh?"

"Yes. Well, what she could weasel out of you anyway… So, want to tell me what happened?"

"What's to tell? I did something dumb, now I'm paying the price for it." I sighed, picking up the mug just to have something in my hands.

"How's Ben taking it?"

"I… I don't really know. We haven't really spoken since I confessed."

"I guess he'll need time." Another heavy silence. "I just don't know what's gotten into you. This isn't like you at all, Kate."

"I-I dunno… It's not like I planned it- it just happened."

"What's the plan then? What are you going to do now?"

"I'm not sure. See how Ben comes to terms with it I guess…"

"And if he can't.. can't come to terms with what you've done?"

"Then… I guess that's the end of it," I mumbled keeping my voice low so it wouldn't falter. I glanced from the unwavering, fretful frown of the woman on the laptop screen to the dregs of coffee dwelling in the mug.

* * *

The days sailed by. There was always plenty of work to be doing, videos to film, edit and process as well as jokes and ideas for future projects to be squirreled away. He had been out and about a bit too, visiting his people at Machinima and catching up with Seth and the gang to talk shop and goof around.

Toby stood on the porch of his neighbour's house, the sun beating down and that god awful growl of gardening tools at work tearing through the tranquil suburban hush. He jabbed the doorbell again. It wasn't uncommon for Kate to not hear its chime the first few rings due to all the noise. After a few more attempts he shrugged at Gryphon and turned to leave. Just as he paced out onto the garden's path, the front door jerked open.

"Toby, hi." He turned at the sound of her calling him.

"Hey, busy project manager." He approached the porch once more, Gryphon in tow. As he neared he noticed she looked tired. Gone was the usual little sundresses and instead she had donned an oversized t-shirt and some denim shorts. Her hair was haphazardly scraped back into a messy bun. Her eyes were rheumy, the hollows under them deeper too, as if she hadn't slept much. "You okay?"

"Yeah, just allergies." She dismissed his concern with a flap of her hand.

"I don't want to sound like a dealer or anything but I've got some grade A Claritin that'll sort you out. Want some?"

"Nah. I'll brave through it. Thanks though."

"I'll just be distributing caffeine then, no side order of antihistamines. Probably for the best, I'm sure the cops are on to me. Not surprising really when you have him for a drug mule." He pointed at Gryphon, who was sat at his feet peering up at the two talking humans.

"I would have thought his cute, little face would have been the perfect bluff."

"Nope. He may be cute but his poker face sucks!" She smiled, though he noticed it was somewhat subdued, her features didn't light up like they normally did. "Well, I better go see my guy. See what he's supplying today, rumour is he's got some good beans from Columbia coming in. I shall return shortly with the goods but if I don't it probably means he bailed out, you know how whack these baristas can be. Come, doggy drug smuggler!" He gave a light tug on the leash and the dog got to his feet and began to follow his oddball master.

Toby wandered back from the coffee shop, drinks in hand. His was already half drunk. Gryphon paused by a tree, his nose to the grass that edged it.

"Seriously? You're going to pee again?" The dog answered him by opting to poop instead. "Oh yeah, real funny, Gyphzor. You just had to curl one out while I'm carrying coffee, couldn't have done it earlier when my hands were free. That's some comedic timing right there, buddy." He mumbled whilst placing the plastic cups on a garden wall. He fiddled with the roll of poop bags that were clipped onto the leash and went about being a responsible owner. Luckily, there was a bin nearby to get rid of the bag.

With the task done he picked up the cups and started walking again, dog happily scampering at his side. He's thoughts drifted to Kate. He had suspicions that the allergies excuse had been a flimsy fib. It had been why he had decided to make jokes rather than pry. He didn't really know her well enough to delve into whatever was going on in her personal life. Perhaps she was still upset with losing her job.

"You took a while. I had thought the deal might have gone wrong." Kate greeted him. He noticed she had applied some make-up in hopes to hide the fatigue and redness gracing her eyes.

"It was a breeze. Unfortunately my accomplice here needs to stop every five paces to poop." He handed her the other cup. She thanked him with a nodded and a smile.

"How can something so small crap so much, surely that's impossible?" She moved to seat herself on the doorstep.

"It's like his superpower or something, his alter ego should have a name like: Poopasaurus, Poopzilla, Pooparella." He sat beside her. Gryphon plonked himself down in front of Toby, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, tired from his walk.

"If he's a superhero he's going to need a side-kick." She smirked, leaning forward to pet him. "What would Poopzilla's side-kick be called?" He frowned, though it wasn't at the jokey question she had posed. It was because he noticed the hand that was atop of Gryphon's head. The fingers of her left hand were bare today, no engagement ring decorating it. It suddenly wasn't that much of a mystery as to why she was here at her sister's house and why she had red eyes this morning.

"Erm, well, if he's the superhero and I'm just the side-kick my name couldn't out awesome his. How about: Dookie Disposal Boy?" His eyes flickered from her fingers to her face.

"Poopzilla and Dookie Disposal Boy. Sounds like quite the dynamic duo." She took a sip of her coffee.


	5. Chapter 4: Murder Scooter

**Author's Notes**:

Hello! I'm posting a new chapter slightly earlier than usual because: 1) Your reviews, favs and follows are greatly appreciated and make me want to write more. 2) tomorrow is the start of July's Camp NaNoWriMo and I really want to give it a go seems as I've never done one before so it means updates may slow slightly.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/ Tobuscus or Gryphon. Vespa do not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Murder Scooter**

My iPhone buzzed like a disgruntled bee, the vibrations rattling along the countertop. I eyed it suspiciously before finally discarding the cereal bowl and spoon to pick it up and inspect it. The caller ID flashed up as Kayla, one of the girl bloggers behind the fashion site, CocoRosa and who adhered to up-coming trends as if they were a religion. She was also one of my best friends. I slowly sat the phone down again and focused once more on my breakfast, which I had been pushing around for a while now causing it to reduce to a soggy mush.

I did want to talk to her but not yet. My method of complete radio silence was no doubt worrying my friends but I still hadn't managed to wrap my head round what was happening and why I only had my stupid self to blame for it. Even Jen's concern and inquisitiveness was beginning to grate on me. I had fled and cut myself off from my usual life for a reason, so I could take a good long, hard look at it and figure out how the hell I was going to fix it. So far I hadn't made much headway seems as I was stuck in a vicious circle of tears and remorse.

After absentmindedly picking at my sloppy cereal, I showered and dressed. It was a typical summer day, the heat already seeping into the city smog. The good thing was the gardeners had finally finished the landscaping and now there was no constant white noise of garden tools. I paused by the French doors to admire their handy work. Jen was more than pleased with their efforts but that didn't mean her project was complete. She planned to go shopping for certain plants, shrubs and flowers that would complement the new layout perfectly. No doubt she'd rope me into helping her plant them at the weekend, she'd see it as a pleasant distraction for me from my usual moping.

As I wandered through the dining room, I saw the laptop was sat open and keenly waiting for me to use it for more job hunting. I paused in front of the chair before it, dithering. I had applied for many and even had a few interviews set up for next week. I suppose I could afford to procrastinate just for a few hours, however, besides the piano there was very little to occupy me in the house. I huffed out a sigh thinking, _Oh, screw it_. Snatching up my little satchel bag and keys, I moved to the door, stopping to slip on my ballet pumps.

The ding of the doorbell was answered by a procession of excited yaps, no doubt Gryphon alerting his human that there was a visitor. A few long minutes later, the door was yanked open.

"Whoa, Gryphon! Chill, will ya?" he said to the dog that was scrambling to get past him in order to investigate further just who their caller was. He squeezed between Toby's legs and scurried forward to sniff at my shoes. Toby squinted against the morning sun, the shift in light irritating his bleary eyes. It seemed I had disturbed him from sleep. He was wearing pyjama bottoms and from the looks of it, he'd hastily pulled on the nearest available T-shirt to make himself presentable as it was inside-out and back to front. The label jutted out from the neck and due to the T-shirt being black it almost looked like a priest's dog collar. His hair was wilder than usual, curls and cowlicks sticking up at almost impossible angles.

"Howdy neighbour," I smiled. "My duties as project manager have come to an end and I thought what better way to celebrate than go get us some coffee?" He rubbed at his sleep heavy eyes. "You want the usual?" This seemed to perk him up, as if his sluggish mind had succeeded to shake off the final fingers of slumber curled around it.

"Hold up, gimme like five minutes and I'll come with," He insisted, suddenly more animate. He ushered me and Gryphon into his hallway and disappeared through the living room to the back of the house, casually throwing, "Be right back. Make yourself at home!" over his shoulder as he went. Gryphon shadowed him, curious as to whether his owner's sudden jolt of energy would result in him being taken for a walk.

I hovered in the hallway, idly fiddling with my keys as I waited for him. Despite his openness I didn't really want to venture further into the house as I felt it would be intruding. Luckily I didn't have to wait long as he soon strolled back through, more appropriately dressed, wallet and phone in hand. By now the shih-tzu was certain he would be included in the unarranged adventure and was scampering and bouncing around his master's feet in eagerness. "You hang around in the hallway a lot at home or something?" he grinned, referring to why I hadn't moved from the door.

"You said you'd be right back." I shrugged. He grabbed the multi-coloured dog leash that hung from a coat hook on the hallway wall and stooped down to secure it on the restless canine's collar.

"Dude, hold still!" He moved to grab Gryphon so he could cease his prancing. With him finally on the leash, we left the house and leisurely made our way to the coffee shop.

. . .

I pushed the glass door open with my shoulder due to holding a drink in each hand, the balmy heat as welcoming as a slap in the face after the cool of the air-conditioning. Weaving through the scattering of tables I reached Toby and Gryphon who were shying from the sun under one of the shop's red and white canopies. I set the drinks down and sat opposite my new acquaintance who had occupied himself in my absence by using his phone. His head lifted when I pushed the iced coffee in front of him.

"Thanks." He placed aside his phone and picked up the plastic cup. "Here's to no more god dang lawn mowing, chainsaw swinging, dirt digging gardeners waking good people up at unreasonable times in the day and scaring otherwise plucky dogs with their constant noise!" he announced triumphantly.

"Hear, hear." I bumped my own cup against his before taking a slurp.

"How fairs the job search? Any takers?"

"I've had a few telephone and Skype interviews but haven't heard anything back from them yet. I've got a few more set up for next week." I pushed the ice around with my straw. "I just hope I manage to snag one soon."

"Don't sweat it. You'll see, this time next week you'll have a job and then we can come here and celebrate with an iced cup of awesomeness."

"I hope so," I sighed. Things hadn't gone to plan the few times I had actually managed to get hold of Ben. His shock at my faithlessness had finally given way to anger. He wanted me out of the apartment permanently. I hadn't even started looking for a new place to live but I knew that I should start and soon, it wasn't like I could crash at Jen's forever. I suppose the money I had been saving for the wedding could be used for the security deposit and payments on a rental apartment. I glumly mulled over the fact that the money scrimped away for the perfect wedding dress was now going to finance a studio apartment the size of a shoebox.

A hand slowly waving back and forth in front of my nose snapped my attention from circling over my anxiousness.

"Yep, you're still in there. Was 'friad you'd gone all zombiefied on me."

"Sorry," I mumbled. "Erm.. I was wondering, you rent your place, right?" He nodded, straw still in his mouth. "How'd you find out about it?"

"Estate agency. The one I used had really good rates. I think I've got their number somewhere on here…" He quickly busied himself with scrolling through what seemed like a long list of contacts. "Success!" He slid the phone over to me, the contact details showing Croft and Wakefield Real Estate. I pulled my own phone out of my satchel and logged down the number with nimble fingers, the manoeuvre a well-practiced one I had homed over the years as a personal assistant.

"Thanks. That's the next thing on my to-do list." I pushed the phone back towards him, as I lifted my cup to take another nip of coffee. His eyes followed the fingers nudging the little object across the short expanse of the table, taking note that I was still without the ring. I quickly retracted my hand. His eyes snapped back up to my face.

"Ah, organisation, I've always wondered how that went," he grinned, palming his phone. "I've never made a list in my life. You should see my grocery shopping. I once went out to get groceries, got distracted and came home with beer, pop rocks and mouthwash."

"The obvious everyday essentials," I smiled, enjoying the fact he simply smoothed over the unanswered awkwardness of the sudden disappearance of my ring with some light-hearted humour. It made a refreshing change from concerned looks and long drawn out conversations with Jen on just what on earth I was doing with my life.

* * *

I turned slowly in the living space of the tiny apartment, taking in my surroundings. The estate agent had deemed it compact, perfect for a single, city girl like myself. I guess it was just fortunate it was cheap and the landlord was willing to sign a short-term contract of three months. I reassured myself that this would only be temporary, just until Ben cooled down and we could sort through things. Over the past few days doubt was beginning to leach on my hopes of Ben ever being okay with what I had done.

"Well? What do you think?" The estate agent, Wakefield himself, asked arms wide in gestured to the glorified hovel we were stood in.

"It's perfect." I nodded.

"Excellent! Let's head back to the office and get some papers drawn up then."

* * *

"So I found a place to live," I informed Toby later on in the week on another outing for coffee. He handed me my drink. I shifted carefully in my seat due to having Gryphon on my lap. He sat up straight, his tail thumping against my leg at the return of his owner.

"That's awesome. Where abouts?" He plonked himself down on the seat opposite, placing his drink and phone on the table.

"Not too far from here, near that old strip mall."

"The one that used to have that Chinese place that looked like a dump but the food was _amazing_?"

"The Blue Dragon, yeah that's the one. I think it got closed down because of hygiene violations."

"Shame, their orange chicken was like the best in town." He took a long sip of his drink. "So I guess we're not gonna be neighbours anymore then."

"I think that'll be a bit hard due to me moving away."

"How 'bout long distance neighbours?"

"How's that going to work?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"Like if I need to borrow a cup of sugar or power tools I could call round."

"I don't own any power tools."

"Neither do I. I should really get some, you know, to back-up my already brimming levels of manliness." I smirked. His phone buzzed. Toby quickly picked it up and tapped a few buttons in response before discarding it once more. "When you moving in then?"

"Everything's set up for next week."

"You need any help with moving stuff?"

"I think I can manage."

"You sure? Don't let this lean physique of mine fool you, I can lift a lot. I'm like an ant or something." I chuckled and ruffled Gryphon's fur. He squirmed, wanting to be on the ground once more. I carefully picked him up and set him down still keeping a hold on his leash. He proceeded to busy himself sniffing at the table legs.

"Well seems as you put it that way it would be a waste if you couldn't put such a talent to use."

* * *

"It's…" Toby was searching for the appropriate word to describe the boxy abode I would be calling home for the next three months.

"Tiny, cramped, crappy, within my savings budget?" I offered, hands at my hips also taking in the little living space with a critical eye. The lounge, kitchen and bedroom were basically all one room. The only separate room in the entire apartment was the pokey bathroom.

"Smart." He noted my eyebrows raise in question at his choice of word. "Think about it- you're hungover, you want breakfast in bed? No problem, kitchen's right there. Forget having to walk too far in the dark and stub your toe if you need to pee during the night 'cause bathroom's right there. It's like a layout design win." He grinned.

"If it's so great, how about a house swap then?" I enjoyed watching the panic flicker onto his boyish features.

"Erm… that sounds like an awesome idea but er.. I wouldn't be able to.. Gryphon. Yeah, Gryphon. I couldn't do it because he's kinda sensitive and if I go and move him to a new place he'll just freak out big time- we're talking Britney Spear's head shaving big and he's not so cute bald."

"I was kidding."

"I knew that."

The sound of the moving truck pulling up outside put an end to our banter and we left the apartment, descending a flight of steps once outside. The truck was only a small one seems as I knew I wouldn't be able to fit all of my possessions in the apartment. Some of it would have to go into storage, well only if things didn't work out anyway. The truck backed up and the driver, Manolo, climbed out. He grunted a brief greeting in Spanish before moving round to open the van's door. In the bed of the truck there was a small pile of boxes, most of which could probably have easily been moved without the need of a rental van.

"_No way_! Please, please, please tell me that's yours!" Toby had spotted the reason behind me hiring a removal company. A candy-apple red, Special 50 model Vespa scooter sat proudly in front of the mountain of cardboard.

"Yep," I smiled.

It took a while to get the ramp set up so we could wheel the bike out but after that was done shifting the rest of my possessions was fairly easy. Once I had thanked and paid Manolo, I turned to see Toby sat at the bottom of the concrete steps that lead up to my floor. He was yet again rattling off a text message on his phone. I approached him and came to a stop in front of him. His attention was still to his cell. I set the half-helmet I had in my hands upon his head. That deemed worthy enough to tear his focus from the phone. He reached up and pulled it off his head to inspect it. It was fashioned to look like an old model, like a race car driver from the '50s would sport- it even had a pair of goggles nestled on the crown.

"Wanna have go?"

"Hell yeah!" He shoved the head gear back on and jumped up. The scooter was still parked outside in the small parking area for the apartment block's tenants, its red paintwork gleaming in the afternoon sunshine. Placing the keys in the ignition I turned them to free the steering lock and kicked up the stand.

"Have you ever ridden one of these before?"

"Nope." He shook his head excitedly. I motioned for him to sit. He clambered onto the scooter planting his feet on the floor to balance the bike's weight, an almost comical smile of exhilaration on his face.

"It's easy. Grip the left break so you don't go speeding off when you fire it up." He complied slapping a hand down on the left handle bar.

"Oh wait, wait!" He rummaged in the pocket of his cargo shorts, pulling out his trusty phone, "Get a video of me riding this beast!" He activated the camera on the device and handed it over to me. "Just press that button in the centre at the bottom to start recording." I accepted it with a nod. He reached up and tugged the goggles into place over his eyes, making him look like a wacky pilot.

"Okay, so grip the break."

"Gotchya." He bobbed his head, the helmet making the simple gesture seem exaggerated. It even flattened down the untidy fringe against his forehead so it brushed the lenses of the old fashioned eyewear.

"Now you're going to push down on the ignition button below the accelerator and whilst doing that twist the right handle grip, keeping hold of the left break." He frowned slightly in concentration and completed the list of actions I gave him. The scooter spluttered to life. I pointed the phone at him and motioned it to begin to film.

"You recording?" he asked over the whine of the engine.

"Yeah. Now, ease up on the break and slowly turn the accelerator."

Though the task of driving a scooter is a fairly simple one, it can take a few attempts to get a smooth take off due to having to place the feet keeping the bike balanced when you're stationary onto the foot well as you move. Toby struggled, the bike wobbling as he attempted to reposition his feet. Panicking he was probably going to fall he attempted to straighten it yet pulled hard on the accelerator instead. The Vespa rocketed off still veering from side to side like a drunk desperately getting to the bar before last orders are called.

"Toby! Pull the breaks!" I hollered. He did, slamming the rear break on hard. It caused the bike to spin out of control, flinging him from it before crashing into some battered trashcans and boxes heaped at the side of the lot. "Shit!" Lowering the phone I dashed towards him as he was dragging himself up from the tarmac. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" I knelt beside him as he managed to get himself in a sitting position.

"Oh crap! Oh I'm so, so, so sorry. I suck at riding bikes. If I still had bicycle I'd have to have stabilizers on- owwww!" His apologetic rambling was cut short with a hiss of pain as the extent on his injuries registered.

"Forget about it, that thing's been in more bumps and scrapes than you'd believe." I dismissed glancing over my shoulder to see the scooter sprawled out on its side, engine still chugging away. "You've lost a little bit of skin on your arm and leg, you injured anywhere else?" I quickly looked him over, moving to carefully remove the goggles and helmet from his head. The scooter finally choked and died.

"Just my ego." He used his unscathed hand to rub at his face.

"We better get you patched up. You okay to move?"

"I think so." I snapped up to my feet and then stooped to take a firm grip of his hand to help him up. He rose stiffly. "Hey, did you get all of that on video?" He nodded to the phone still clutched in my free hand. It was still recording.

"I'm not sure. I kind of got distracted when you decided to eat tarmac." I hit the button again to shut it off and handed it over to him. He laughed but quickly winced in pain as a result.

* * *

Later that night, when he had finally arrived home from the hospital after sitting in a crowded, stuffy waiting room for hours on end, Toby limped over to the sofa. Gryphon was weaving between his feet, wiggling in welcome. He sagged down onto the furniture with a groan. He looked like a half-finished mummy thanks to all the gauze and bandages they had wrapped him up in so that the antiseptic burn cream would be able to soak in.

It had been a long afternoon what with the move and him crashing Kate's scooter. She had stayed with him all the while at the hospital and even had to help him fill in his patient forms seems as his left hand (his dominant hand) was the one that had taken the blunt of the impact. After a few x-rays of it to check nothing was broken, his raw skin was scrubbed of dirt and gravel, slavered in burn cream and dressed in bandages. He'd have to call by the pharmacy tomorrow for extra items so he could change the dressings himself. Though he'd been given a few painkillers his skin still felt as if it was on fire. According to Kate, road rash 'stung like a bitch'.

He gingerly stretched out on the couch, being careful not to bump his bandaged limbs. He fished his phone from his pocket with his good hand to see there was an assortment of missed calls and texts from people, mostly friends. He ignored them for the time being and drew up the collection of videos stored to his phone. He selected the newest of the bunch.

The apartment block's parking lot flashed up with him sitting proudly on the Vespa in the middle of the frame, decked in the retro helmet and goggles looking very much like a budget price Evil Kenevil.

"You recording?" he called over the growl of the bike, an eager grin plastered on his face.

"Yeah. Now ease up on the break and slowly turn the accelerator." Came Kate's girlish voice off camera.

He watched as he heeded her instructions and the scooter began to move though wobbling precariously due to him attempting to place his feet on the bike's foot well. It went downhill pretty quick after that, the bike zipping off and Kate's voice yelling, "Toby! Pull the breaks!" There was a screech of rubber slipping over hot tarmac and the dull thud of him hitting the ground, swiftly followed by the crash of the scooter skidding into the trash cans on its side. "Shit!" Came a gasp before the phone was plunged into darkness, the muffled sound of quick footsteps and material rusting as she had palmed the phone and dashed over to him. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He heard her ask, concern thick in her tone. There was a brief moment of sheer whiteness as the camera lens reacted to suddenly being released from darkness. When it had subsided, the image showed that the camera was now face up on the ground, catching a glimpse of her on the very fringe of the frame- mainly just that ridiculously long hair of hers- as he apologised for wrecking her scooter.

The camera got a good shot of him as she snatched up the phone, unaware it was indeed still recording and helped him up. As they began to shuffle off to the other side of the lot where his car was parked, the film jerkily showing shots of the car lot, he heard his voice ask off camera,

"Hey, did you get all of that on video?" The shot quickly swung round to show Kate's face squinting at the camera for a moment before glancing over to him out of frame.

"I'm not sure. I kind of got distracted when you decided to eat tarmac." She wisecracked before the video finished.

At least he had some interesting lazy vlog material to upload today, although he'd probably cut the video short so there wasn't a clear shot of her face. He didn't really think she'd appreciate being filmed unknowingly and also maybe being seen liable for his scooter mishap. Though the bike had come out of the crash in a far better state than him, she might want to claim on her insurance, which would be harder to do if there was proof that she wasn't the unlucky one who had trashed it in the first place floating around on the internet.

A few hours later the short clip uploaded on his daily vlog channel had had twice as many hits as his usual vlog content received. The video, aptly entitled 'Scooter ride of MURDERDEATH!' had also worried many of his viewers, a lot of them asking in the comments section if he was alright. He had put a big annotation on the bottom centre of the screen stating, 'I'm okay, just my dignity was maimed during in this lazy vlog!' to prevent further fretting.


	6. Chapter 5: Prat

**Author's Notes:**

NaNo is turning out to be an epic fail! :( I thought I'd cheer myself up by writing more of this! Also Fanfiction keeps removing the 'at' symbol that should go before roriola like a typical Instagram tag has- it probably thinks I'm trying to post a link! :|

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon or any other real life people, such as Rory. Instagram and Mac do not _Sponsor_! this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Prat**

He had slept very little that night, unable to get comfortable due to his raw limbs. Dragging himself out of bed much earlier than he would have liked, Toby hobbled through to the living room, phone in hand. Gryphon lifted his head, probably surprised that his master was up and about before him. His whole body ached, his arms and legs feeling stiff and sore, probably from bracing to hit the ground when he'd been thrown from the scooter. He sagged down on to the couch with a wince and was just about to check the ton of messages he'd received over night when the iPhone began to buzz in his hand. The caller came up as Rory.

"'Ello?" He gave an attempt at an English accent but his voice was still thick from sleep.

"You bloody idiot, Toby. How the hell did you manage to crash a scooter?" came the authentic twang of Rory's accent.

"You saw the video then?" He rubbed at his eyes.

"How could I not, it's had that many views it's on Youtube's 'Most Popular' section on the main page." He chuckled. "Best stick to the day job and leave the stunts up to the professionals, eh?"

"I dunno, 'Daredevilbuscus' has quite the ring to it," he faked a tone of musing.

"Who's bike was it anyway?"

"The girl next door I told you about- the one who found Gryphon when he went AWOL a few weeks back."

"And she's okay that you totally trashed it? That thing's basically an antique. My dad used to ride one of those when he went through a Mod phase when he was 'bout my age and it had been expensive to buy then."

"Ugh, don't tell me that, dude! I already feel crappy I crashed it- now I feel uber crappy!" He groaned, uninjured hand lethargically rubbing at his face.

"How bad are your war wounds?"

"I didn't lose any limbs or break any bones so that's gotta be some kind of win. I can still mash the keyboard so I doubt my gaming stuff will be affected.

"Right, for that to happen you'd need to be skilled in the first place," he tittered. "You need anything?"

"A new couple of layers of skin on my arm and leg, someone to train my dog to stop peeing on the floor, a hug- oh wait, you mean like shopping and things!" he joked. "I could use some more bandages and stuff seems as I have to change them."

"Okay, no problem, I'll pick them up for you. Anything else?"

"The aforementioned hug?"

"I'm not hugging you, man."

"Iced coffee instead then, please."

"Deal. See you in about an hour."

"Cheerio, mate!" He once more donned the English accent he was always trying to improve on whenever speaking to his friend.

"Stop that, you sound like a Cockney," Rory teased before hanging up.

He pottered about for a bit attempting to make breakfast and dress himself, the usual everyday tasks taking twice as long thanks to his current battered state. It didn't help he also had to stop every five minutes as calls flooded his phone, friends and family wanting to know if he was alright after catching wind of his latest antic.

He had just sat down at his computer when the doorbell went. He groaned before lurching up and shuffling off through the house to answer it.

Rory stood with a coffee in one hand, a carrier bag from the pharmacy in the other. He took one look at Toby and burst out laughing.

"Mate, can we please Instagram that?" He managed to say as he stifled his snickering.

He was obviously referring to unfinished Egyptian mummy look he was sporting, complete with hair that looked like he had shoved his finger in the electrical socket thanks to him forgetting to brush it this morning. He also hadn't bothered putting in his contact lenses either and instead had simply shoved on his glasses.

"Oh, hi, Rory! Nice to see you too. I'm just dandy, thanks for asking." He good-humouredly retorted, stepping aside to let his friend in.

"I'm sorry, you just look like some strange lovechild of Tutankhamen's mummy and Harry Potter!"

He entered and strolled into the lounge, setting down the pharmacy supplies on the coffee table. Toby shut the door and followed him to see Rory was bent down, petting Gryphon. He straightened and handed his friend the coffee when he reached his side. The two had been friends for a while after meeting at a party in a friend of friend's roundabout kind of way. Their sense of humour was often at different ends of the spectrum at times, Toby favouring goofy whilst Rory sticking to that typical British dry wit. He had often wondered why he hadn't started up a Youtube channel of his own but then again Rory wasn't really the extrovert type you needed to be for that kind of thing. He was much happier being behind the scenes.

Toby happily poised for a picture, the straw of his drink pushed to the side of his mouth, sporting a big grin, his left hand flashing a thumbs up. They'd taken it on his phone so Toby would easily be able to post it on his Instagram with the caption, 'Coffee of iced epicosity makes everything all better! With roriola.'

* * *

When I had finished making myself presentable decked in typical dress and flats, hair swept back into a pony tail, I left Jen's, locking the door as I went. Due to having spent the majority of yesterday afternoon in the emergency room of a down town hospital, I hadn't manage to unpack any of my things and so had resorted to sleeping at my sister's another night more. I walked the short distance to next door, noting there was a different car parked on the sidewalk in front of Toby's place.

Ringing the doorbell, I heard Gryphon's yapping from deep in the house. The door opened and a bandage swathed Toby stood in the doorway, that lopsided grin on his face.

"Hey, soon to not be next door neighbour."

"How are you?" I cast a concerned glance at his bandaged forearm.

"Oh just fine, it's just a scratch really."

"Trust me, road rash isn't just a scratch. See?" I gestured to my foot. He squinted down at it to see the top of it had two ragged scars dotted along its stretch. They looked oddly like two bullet wounds long healed. "I have these because I came off a few years back whilst wear flimsy flats like these ones. I thought it was 'just a scratch' so did a DIY patch up job. They didn't heal properly and trainee nurse in the emergency room had to cut the scab away with a scalpel with no local athletic so they could apply the correct cream to help it finally heal."

"Ewww! Okay fine, I totally lied for the sake of sounding macho- I hurt all over." He sagged a little against the doorframe. I shook my head, smiling knowingly. A man's voice called from somewhere in the house asking who was at the door. Toby ducked back round the door and shouted, "Girl next door." His attention flickered back to me. "Come in, come in." He stepped aside and swept his right hand back in welcome.

"Oh no it's fine, you have company. I'll call back later after I've been by the apartment."

"Nah, it's no problem. Come meet my friend, you'll love him he talks funny 'cause he's all English." He enthused, repeating the gesture as he beckoned me in. I slipped passed him and into the hallway. Gryphon wriggled around my ankles, sniffling and licking. I bowed down and rubbed his ears.

"Have you been lookin' after Toby, mister?" I asked him.

Toby trundled past me calling behind him,"Want some coffee?"

"Sure." I straightened and followed him through to the lounge. Sat on the couch in front of an open Macbook that was placed on the coffee table was a guy around my age. His mousy brown hair was worn longer than Toby's, stopping at his jaw, which had the whiskers of a short beard decorating it. He glanced up from the laptop at my entering the living area.

"Kate, this is Rory, he helps me out every now and then with my job. Rory, this is Kate, the owner of the scooter I wrecked yesterday." He introduced.

"Hi." I smiled.

"Nice to meet you," he returned.

"Don't mind me kids, I'll go play hostess and make some coffee." Toby hobbled off into the kitchen. I hovered near the coffee table, taking in the strange array of artwork adorning the walls. Rory quickly shut the laptop and scooted over so I could sit down.

"I can't believe he crashed your Vespa. How bad's the damage?"

"Actually, I think Toby came off worse than the bike. There's a bit of a dent and some damage to the paintwork but nothing too serious."

"That was lucky then, he looked like he was going pretty fast when he lost control."

"Ah, so he showed you the video." I guess I had managed to capture the whole fiasco after all.

"He didn't have to, it's all over Youtube. The thing's got potential to go bloody viral it's getting that many hits."

"What?" I blinked not quite following what he was saying. Why would Toby bother uploading a badly filmed clip of him wiping out on the internet?

"You mean you haven't seen?" He flicked the laptop open once more and attacked the keys to bring up the Youtube page. There, halfway down the page under a small section titled 'Most Popular', was a thumbnail of Toby sat upon my Vespa, helmet and goggles on. Rory clicked on it and it played the amateur video of him attempting to set off on the bike and crashing it. It ended the instant the camera cut away from the scooter sprawled out on its side, engine still whining. The number of views was ridiculous, over 200,000 and it had only happened yesterday!

"This kind of thing popular on Youtube?" I glanced over at him. He was frowning in puzzlement at my reaction.

"You do know what Toby does for a living, right?" he drawled slowly.

"He said something to do with computers," I shrugged.

The subject of discussion could be heard cursing the coffee machine in the kitchen, oblivious.

Rory briefly typed something into the search bar at the top of the page. I watched as the word he entered was 'Tobuscus'. Why did that word seem familiar? A new page flashed up the tag stating, 'Tobuscus/ Toby Turner- new videos every week'.

"He makes Youtube videos for a living." He motioned to the page.

"Really?" My voice crept up an octave in surprise. "You can actually make a living off this kind of stuff?"

"You can if you're dedicated. Toby's basically an entertainer. He has three channels, his main one under his alias, Tobuscus, then there's a vlog channel and a gaming channel," he enlightened. He noticed the utter look of bewilderment on my features as I returned my attention back to the screen. "How has he not told you any of this?" There was a hint of marvel gracing his tone, suggesting it was a rare occurrence his feats on the online world went unmentioned.

"He did ask me about Youtube once and whether I used it. He mentioned vlogging- vlogging?" I asked, unsure if I had remembered the term correctly. He nodded. "Vlogging. He mentioned that too."

"But failed to bring up the fact he actually did it." Rory seemed amused by this little titbit of information.

"Dang it, it's hard trying to fit those coffee filters with a busted-up hand." Toby announced as he entered back into the lounge. We both snapped our heads up to look up at him. Rory slapped the laptop shut. "You two playing nice?" He seemed to have picked up on our suspicious behaviour.

"Yep, we've been bonding over an interesting discovery."

"Oh what about Rory's dad being a Mod when he was our age and having like the exact same model Vespa?"

"It's more the unbelievable fact that you didn't tell Kate here about your job."

"I.. um.. what?"

"Or the fact you had posted that video of you crashing my scooter."

"Hey, I edited it so you weren't in it," he justified. "And I didn't tell you because you thought Youtube was just full of cat videos! I smell coffee, do you smell coffee? I think it's ready, better go see if it's ready." He limped off before we could grill him further.

* * *

Whilst enjoying their coffee, Toby was somewhat relieved they had decided to drop the whole subject of him not telling his new friend of his profession and instead Kate and Rory discussed Vespas at length. Once the coffee had been drunk and their conversation began to dwindle, Rory's phone beeped. He glanced at it and sighed.

"I better get going. Can you live without me updating this thing for another day or so?" He was referring to the Macbook.

"But it keeps crashing every time I even hover the cursor over my editing software."

"Fine, I'll take it with me and get it back to you tomorrow." He picked up the laptop and tucked it under his arm.

"You are a true gent, good sir!" Toby beamed in his English accent.

"And you're a prat," Rory returned.

"Hey, you know the rules- none of that foreign gibberish unless you tell me its elusive meaning."

"It means 'idiot', you berk." He tittered getting to his feet. "Lovely to have met you Kate, hope the scooter will live to ride another day." He bid before moving to the hallway. "I'll call by tomorrow with this."

"Thank you, kind Englishman!" Toby called after him.

"I should go as well. Those boxes aren't going to unpack themselves." Kate sighed.

"How are you gonna get all the way over to your apartment?" The scooter was still at the apartment, he had seen her secure it to one of the street lights that lit the car lot by looping a sturdy looking bike lock through its tire and weaving it around the pole. She glanced at her wristwatch.

"Bus. There's one that leaves in about twenty minutes, I'll catch that one."

"Forget that! I'll drive you."

"It's fine, you should really rest and get those bandages changed."

"Nope, I'm gonna drive you and even help out with the unpacking, but probably mostly just get in the way, because I messed up you're moving day by being a prat." A satisfied grin tugged at his mouth at the fact he had managed to work in the newly learnt into word to his speech.

"If you insist."

"Damn right I do." He clambered to his feet and shambled about picking up necessary items for his travels: phone, keys, and wallet.

. . .

It had taken longer than expected to sort out Kate's things and although he helped, Toby knew he wasn't really being of any use. His arm flashed with pain whenever he lugged a box to the required area of the small apartment. By the time the sun began to hang low in the blur of smog, only half of the boxes had been emptied.

"I had thought it was going to take a while but not this long!" huffed Kate. She brushed back a few stray strands of hair that had worked free from her pony tail with the back of her hand as not to smudge newspaper ink that had rubbed off onto her fingers when she had unpacked some glasses. "Looks like I'll be spending a few more nights at Jen's after all."

"Lemme guess, you're going to get the bus back." He quipped, perched on the end of her bed, looking over a tattered copy of 'House of Leaves' by Mark Z. Danielewski before replacing it back on the pile at his feet.

"Nah, I know this guy who owes me a favour seems as he trashed my vintage scooter," she snorted moving to the kitchen to wash the ink from her hands.

"Right, 'cause that's how all friendships are forged, through a healthy dose of guilt." He watched as she dried her hands on a dishcloth. She then playfully tapped a clean finger to her chin in mock consideration.

"I wouldn't really call us friends, more long distant neighbours."

"You let me ride your scooter, trust me sister, we're buddies now."

"And just who am I befriending, Toby or Tobuscus?" An impish smile accompanied her question.

"Erm…I..Is that the time? You're gonna miss your bus," he deflected.

. . .

Back across town, Toby swung the car into his driveway. Getting out of the seat was a task seems as his stiff limbs throbbed dully in ache. A glance down showed his bandages were starting to show signs of wear.

"So, I'll give you a ride over to your place tomorrow if you want." He leant on the convertible's hood slightly as he looked over at her on the opposite side of the car.

"I don't think I'll have chance tomorrow. I've got an interview at 10:00 and then I promised Greg I'd help him pick something out for Jen's birthday." She clicked the car door shut. "Thanks anyway though."

"Tell you what, I'll give you the number of an awesome taxi service I found. You know, just in case I'm out and about and can't make myself useful while your bike gets sorted out." He flapped his uninjured hand as a signal for her to hand him her phone. She passed it over the hood of the car and watched as he quickly consulted his own phone before logging the number in her contacts and handed it back. It was stored under the simple ID of 'Taxi'.

She thanked him again and her eyes flickered to his bandaged forearm.

"Are you going to be able to change those?"

"Yep, Rory got me the stuff earlier. I better go and get fixed up."

They bid goodbye to one another and went their separate ways he slammed to a stop when he had forgotten to say something to her. Ducking his head round the porch he saw she was unlocking her door.

"Hey, Kate!" he called. Her head turned at the sound of his voice a look of confusion on her. "Good luck on your interview tomorrow!"

"Thanks, I'm going to need it!" She cheerfully called back.

* * *

A few days later and things were finally settling into a routine. I had moved into my apartment, the Vespa was in the shop getting its cosmetic damage seen to and I had yet another interview lined up for today. I had spent longer than usual getting ready for this one as it was an office junior position at a successful law firm with good pay, which was definitely what I was in need of at the moment seems as my savings were slowly trickling away. I had decided to wear my black pencil dress that was stylish yet its cut had appropriate coverage for the office. Black mid-heels and my classic black satchel finished the outfit. I wore my hair neatly pulled back into a bun and kept my make-up light. I looked myself over in the mirror for the millionth time, hoping it would make the right first impression.

I huffed a sigh and dug around in my satchel for my phone. I needed to call a taxi seems as it was quite a way from where I now lived and I didn't fancy walking all the way there or catching a stuffy bus in this heat. Scrolling down the contacts I came to the number for the taxi service Toby had punched into my phone the other day. I selected it and pushed the call button. It didn't take long for the other end of the line to pick up.

"Toby's taxis!" beamed a familiar male voice.

"Toby?" The astonished hint to my voice quickly shifted to a knowing tone as realisation set in "You saved your number in my phone under 'taxi' knowing I'd ring it at some point during the week, smooth."

"Well, I could have just given it to you but that might have creeped you out, you know seems as you don't consider me as a friend and all." I could almost hear that smirk as he rattled off his excuse. "One of our reliable driver's will be with you shortly."

"Are you driving while on your cell?" I asked, listening hard to pick up the tell-tale hum of a car engine in motion was present in the background noise.

"Erm.. no." That meant yes then. "Ugh, I gotta go. I just ran a red light and the car behind me looks suspiciously like cop car." He joked before hanging up.

Not long after the call ended, a short sharp blast of a car horn sang out in the parking lot. I hurried out of the apartment and down the steps to see my 'taxi' was waiting. I pulled open the door and slipped into the passenger seat. He still had a gauze dressing secured to his arm with a length of bandage, however his movements seem more fluid and easy since I had last seen him.

"Lookin' sharp," he complimented. "So, where to, m'lady?"

"Lichmen and Goldstein law firm, please."

"On it!" He whirled the car round and exited onto the road. "So have you heard anything from any of the other interviews you had the week before?"

"Just a bunch of rejection letters, no job to speak of yet." I sighed.

"Dude, that sucks. Fingers crossed on this one then."

"Thanks. How about your work? Are things going okay in the online world?"

"Yeah things are good. My gaming channel reached 2 million subscribers not long ago so that's nice."

"Wow. How come you didn't tell me that you were this big online favourite?"

"Meh, you know…" He mumbled. A sideway glance caught my expression of bafflement, pushing him to elaborate, "It didn't really seem like the kind of thing you're into and I was too lazy to go about explaining how me being a nerd pays the bills."

"I guess I am out of touch with the whole social network thing," I considered. It had been months since I last logged onto my Facebook account, if I ever needed to get a hold of Kayla or any of my other friends I just texted them instead.

"And that's not a bad thing! Trust me, it's nice to talk to someone who's only Youtube experiences have been of cat videos."

"Maybe I should log on and watch some of yours then. Any recommendations?"

"You're asking for recommendations on my own work? Now how am I going to be able to do that without sounding totally self-absorbed?" He smirked, hand smoothly flicking the indicator as we came up to a junction.

"Okay, fine, which video would one of your viewers tell me to watch then?"

"Erm.. Probably the Assasin's Creed Brotherhood literal trailer or Nugget in a biscuit video."

"Nugget in a biscuit?"

"Yep. Little ditty about nuggets, biscuits, mash potatoes and barbecue sauce."

"Now I am intrigued!" I laughed.

It wasn't long before the car rolled to a stop outside its destination, a sleek looking office decked in monochrome was visible through large windows. I unbuckled my seat belt.

"What's the cab fare? And no scamming me with extortionate rates, you came highly recommended from a friend of mine and he'll be most disappointed if I tell him otherwise." I joked.

"Well in that case, there's no charge today. Think of it as a good luck gesture for your interview."

"Really? But you were taxiing me back and forth earlier in the week to my apartment."

"Um, yeah because I was the reason behind you being transportation-less in the first place!"

"But I-"

"Really, it's no biggy. I was in the area." He jerked a thumb to the back seat. A glance over my shoulder showed a few chunky bundles of documents.

"Youtube comes with paperwork, huh?"

"Yep, well really it's just random junk- rental contract that needed renewing and there was some stuff from my other employers," he explained. "Anyway, good luck or is that bad luck? You know, like when you wish a performer good luck before they go on stage. Shouldn't it be 'break a leg'?"

"I'm not entirely sure."

"Well then I'll wish you, 'break a luck', so then you get the best of both phrases!"

"Thanks, Toby." I opened the car door. The car's cooling air conditioning fought against the sudden intrusion of the summer heat.

"Hey, if you want I could hang around 'til you've finished, drive you back."

"Nah, it's okay. I don't really know how long I'll be but thank you."

"'Kay. You've got my number if you do need a ride." I got out of the car and turned, hand on the door.

"Thanks. See you later."

"Bye!"

* * *

Toby pulled the car up into a spot by Vivian's Cafe and climbed out. Walking through into the back of the restaurant he saw that Rory had already arrived and was sat at one of the tables, drink untouched before him due to him concentrating on his phone.

"Rory-Borealis!" he greeted, he often enjoyed the word play his friend's name could conjure. The English guy lifted his gaze at the ring of his cheery tone. "Hey, fancy seeing you here."

"Likewise. I was thinking you weren't going to show."

"Sorry 'bout that. Had to make a quick detour to give Kate a ride to her interview." He plonked himself down opposite his friend under the shelter of the green canopy. He slapped his phone and keys onto the table and glanced about the busy terrace in search of a waitress.

"You're getting awfully friendly with girl next door, you interested in her or something?" Toby's head snapped back round, his look of surprise almost comical thanks to his eyebrows being so highly raised there was danger of them joining his hairline.

"What?" His voice was raised in shock.

"Was just wondering. She's cute," he nonchalantly shrugged before picking up his glass and taking a swig. The waitress drifted over to their table, interrupting them. They ordered their food. Once she had sashayed away to sort their order, Rory gave him a look of impatience as if still in waiting for answer, clearly the pause to order their meal hadn't been the end of the topic.

"It is so not like that. I trashed her bike. I'm just making sure she can still get from A to B while her scooter's getting fixed up."

"Then why not mention the whole Tobuscus thing? Normally you can never keep that one quiet."

"I dunno, dude. It just didn't seem like her sort of thing. Besides you know my usual approach is to blurt that thing out straight away if I'm interested in someone like that, hell it's like my damn chat-up line!"

"Well, if you're not game.." Rory suddenly caught the flash of disapproval seizing his friend's face. "What?"

"I not a 100% sure but something's gone down recently with her. When I first met her she was staying at her sister's and she wore an engagement ring, but then a couple of weeks ago suddenly the engagement ring's gone and she's moving in to a studio apartment, alone."

"Ah, okay."

That quickly drew the discussion to an end.


	7. Chapter 6: Iron Man

**Author's Notes:**

Okay so NaNo's going much better now which is why this chapter's kind of short but I really wanted to get this bit done so we can go ahead with the bucket load of misadventures I have planned. I would love some reviews or any feed back on this as I'd like to know what you guys think so far!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. Dominos Pizza do not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 6: Iron Man**

I had decided to break-up the mundane routine of rejection correspondence and interviews by doing the equally dull yet necessary grocery shopping. As I browsed the aisles enjoying the air-conditioning whilst looking for wallet friendly foods, my phone began to beep. I quickly rummaged around in my satchel, desperately attempting to retrieve the suddenly elusive object before the call ended. It could be a potential employer calling to give the good news I was so wishing to hear. Without even checking the number I jabbed at the screen and held it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"Oh my god- you _are_ alive!" came the bright voice on the other end of the line. Oh crap.

"Kayla, hi."

"Where the hell are you? You just upped and disappeared and there's all these weird rumours flying around about you. I left like a tone of messages on your home phone and I've been calling this thing non-stop but you never picked up."

"Yeah.. I've just been a little busy I guess, sorry."

"Really? Because I've heard some pretty OTT stories about you getting fired and Ben breaking up with you."

"They sound kind of accurate to me," I sighed.

"What?" she breathed. "Where are you? I'm coming to get you."

I suppose I had to break out of the bubble I had plonked myself in in hope to work through this sooner or later. I had just wished to have solved a few more problems (like the ever depleting savings account funds) before reaching out to my friends. I decided to grit my teeth and have done with it. It wasn't really fair on Kayla who had clearly been worried about me all this time.

She picked me up from the grocery store and we went to over to her place for lunch. Kayla's apartment was a complete opposite of my pokey abode. Its walls were white, the odd splash of colour here and there thanks to a few framed pictures of Dior sketches that had been enlarged to poster size. We sat at her small dining table in the kitchen pushing sprigs of salad around but not really eating it. Kayla was always on a diet, even though she already was rail thin. She claimed it was more for 'wellness' than to lose weight. I looked up from my plate and continued to listen to her chatter on.

"I mean you were always going on about him, you know?" she shrugged. "Matt this, Matt that. I just never thought you were actually in to him like that."

"I wasn't, well not really."

"Then why'd you sleep with him then?"

"I don't know.. I mean at first we had a lot in common: music, books. But the more I saw of him I realised that he was interesting and smart and funny too."

The admiration had so easily shifted to attraction that I had shrugged it off as a childish fleeting crush that would soon pass. It hadn't though. It only grew and worst still, Matthew, my boss' husband, also seemed to be struggling with the predicament of lust.

"So it's definitely over between you and Ben?" She lowered her fork and pushed her length of blonde hair over her shoulders with a flick of her hand.

"N-no, no. He just asked me to move out to give him some space. I know it will take some time and working through but I'm sure we can fix things."

"But you haven't really sat down and talked about this though."

"That's what Ben does in these kind of situations- shuts himself out and stews for a while. It's always best to just leave him be for a bit before trying again." I took a sip of the goji berry juice she had served with the tiny salad. "Anyway, enough about me and my dramas! How's the blog going?"

"Oh my god, you didn't see it? It was featured in ELLE!" I knew if I had shifted the topic to of her work she would easily go along. There was always something exciting happening in the fashion world and her blog.

* * *

A few days later, I got the good news that my Vespa was once again functioning and well. The not so good news was the price it had cost to amend the damage. As I waited for any job offers to roll in my bank balance had plummeting so much that it was a now a decision of scooter or living costs. I had been hoping to hear from Lichmen and Goldstein about the office junior position but no letters or calls came my way. I was currently even mulling over the idea of finding a quick-fix, temporary job rather than another attempt at a career.

Slumped on my bed, laptop sat before me, I began searching for alternative jobs. As I scrolled through the vast selection of cleaning and waitressing vacancies advertised in the area my phone began to buzz.

Once again making the error of snatching it up and answering the call without so much as a glance as to who the caller was, the cheery boyish voice on the other end said, "Good morning, valid customer! We here at Toby's taxis are passionate about our customer service so with regards to your custom the other day were just following up to check that our rates were considered competitive and within the scale to the recommendation that was given to you."

"Your rates were good. Your driver, however, not so hot."

"What? He's an excellent driver how dare you say that!"

"Well let's see, he did violate the law by driving whilst on his cell phone and also I don't know if you know this but there's a video on Youtube that shows him unskilfully driving a scooter into some trash cans. Perhaps a disciplinary is necessary as I'm sure his antics won't be doing much for your sales."

"Oh yeah? Well any grievances you have can be issued to management." I could almost imagine him sticking his tongue out after that one.

"I don't like your tone. Maybe I should mention to management that the customer service at Toby's taxis sucks too."

"Pfft! I am the manager, sister. So bring it!"

"Shut up." A bark of laughter rattled down the line.

"Okay, okay, so the courtesy call was more me wanting to check up on how the Vespa's doing. She fixed yet?"

"Yeah, I've been meaning to go and pick it up."

"What you doin' now because I'm at your end of town. I could swing by to get you and we could go get coffee like typical long distant neighbours do and then swing by the autoshop."

It was a tempting offer. I had been going stir crazy trapped in this little box of a building. The horrible blare of reggaeton music blasting from one of the apartment block's other residents was proving hard to become accustom to. Not to mention the drudgery of job hunting was beginning to wear down my hopes of ever landing a job.

"As usual my day is free and that sounds like a great idea."

"Like I said before, at Toby's taxis the customer comes first!"

"Erm, you never said that."

"Of course I did. Geez, just 'cause you come first don't mean you're always right! Anyway I gotta go, there's a meter maid coming this way and my time expired like ten minutes ago."

"Really selling that whole competent driver thing aren't you?"

"Hells yeah!" He laughed and hung up.

Seems as the Coffeebean was quite a drive away we had ended up at Starbucks instead. When I had pointed out to him that there were plenty of non-branded cafes that also did coffee justice he donned a puzzled look and asked, 'Yeah, but do they have loyalty cards?' It seemed Toby's caffeine dependency was far greater than I had first thought. Apparently it wasn't uncommon for him to gulp down three or four a day so it did make sense to buy into the whole reward scheme that the larger chains had set up.

Sat across from him on one of the armchairs that tended to be clustered in the corner I could help but shake off the feeling that something was amiss. Gryphon. Normally he accompanied us on our jaunts to get coffee. It felt strange not having him at our feet snuffling and waddling around on his leash.

"How's the arm?" I asked. His bandages were gone and instead he had a big band aid stuck to where the worse of the injury had been.

"Much better. I was thinking when we go and pick up the mean machine I could give it another spin." He grinned before taking his drink's straw in his mouth.

"No way. I don't know how many more crashes that things got left in it." Though I shook my head I was struggling to keep the smile from my lips.

"But it's working okay now though?"

"Yeah. It was only really the wheel arch you pranged and they had to smooth out some of the dents in the back end of the bodywork."

"Still that kind of thing can soon add up." His eyes moved from focusing on his drink to glance at me. "Maybe the idiot that crashed it should help pay for it."

"What?" My eyebrows knitted together into a frown. "No."

"Come on! It's bad enough I crashed it but then I went and made a Youtube video about it and got like a ton of subscribers from it. Dude, I owe you big time."

"Actually, you don't because you've been driving me about so let's call it even."

"Ugh." A hand dragged through his hair messing it further. I decided to quickly shift the subject, knowing he would keep insisting otherwise.

"Did Rory manage to get your laptop working again?"

"Yep, he does have his uses beside the whole English charm thing he's got going on."

"So you're back to making proper videos again not just ones filmed on your phone?"

"Business as usual. Speaking of which, did you hear anything back from your interview at the law place?"

"Nope. Wait, I'll just double check they haven't sent me anything in the past half an hour." Pulling my phone out I quickly motioned it to bring up my e-mail account. There sat at the top of my inbox was an e-mail from Lichmen and Goldstein entitled 'RE office junior position'. My surprise must have shown on my face and Toby leaned forward to attempt to peer at my phone.

"Ha! That has to be good right? Go on open it!" I selected the e-mail and quickly scanned it for the outcome of my interview.

"We regret to inform you your application for this position wasn't selected. Your resume and contact details will be placed on file for further considerations into any future available vacancies here at Lichmen and Goldstein firm." I rolled off the string of polite words in monotone so that the disappointment wouldn't show through in my voice.

"Dude, that sucks."

"Oddly enough I'm getting used to it."

"I'm sure someone's gonna snap you up soon. I mean you were a PA for this big ass company and sounds like you used to go out of your way to do your job, you know with the whole blogging thing…" He trailed off suddenly his face going blank as if he had just been slapped upside the head by an epiphany. The straw hung loosely from his bottom lip, which was dropped seems as he had stopped mid-speech.

"You reached nirvana there Toby? Care to enlighten me?"

"Oh my god," he eventually said slowly, his hazel eyes growing wide. "Why didn't I think of it before? It so freakin' simple it's ingenious!" He paused for effect before dishing out his bright idea. "You could work for me!"

"Huh? That was your big brainwave?"

"Yeah. It make's perfect sense. You're a personal assistant- you organise and do all the boring paperwork and get those random jobs done that your boss doesn't have time for. Well I'm the most unorganised procrastinator like in the history of unorganised procrastinators! Seriously, I'm sure if they could be bothered enough to elect a leader I'd be head honcho. It would solve both our problems."

"But-" I was quickly cut off by his excited babbling.

"This is gonna be so awesome. It's like I'm Iron Man!" He clocked my raised eyebrows. "You know, cause he has an assistant, Pepper Potts.. Except the only difference is I don't have the multi-million dollar company, car and house, or the playboy swagger.. or the supercool robot suit. Gotta start somewhere though, right?" My hand twitched in want for its palm to meet my forehead in sheer despair.

"Toby," I spoke patiently, keeping my tone light, much like you'd use when attempting to calm an energetic child. "I used to work for a company that was on the threshold of a multi-million dollar status. My responsibilities weren't just fetching coffee and making sure my boss' appointments didn't clash."

"Then working for me will be a breeze for you." He grinned.

"Hold up, I never even agreed to work for you. You just blurted it out!"

"Come on, please?" He mustered up a convincing puppy-dog face. "'Sides it will look much better on your resume if you're being PA to an up and coming Youtube star rather than a big blank space of unemployment. Think of it as temp work. Instead of spending the next six months or so just looking for work you could also be using those skills to help me get my channel up and off the ground."

The protest that had been on the tip of my tongue withered at his logic. Employers in these kinds of companies were always praising proactivity. Not to mention if Youtube was really such a recognisable company now there might be some way of maybe worming my way in there through working for Toby. He took my silence as a good thing as his pleading look broke into a smile of satisfaction.

"See, I have business smarts." He tapped an index finger to his temple for emphasis and then took a sip of his coffee.

"Okay, fine. Let's just think this through before we agree on anything though. I don't know much about Youtube or your channel. I still haven't even seen any of your videos. And I just don't get how you can be making money off them."

A long meandering conversation arose as he went about explaining how he had become a partner of the internet company and just how he made a profit through it. He brought up his account on his phone and showed me how his stats and his frequency of uploads effected his subscribes which in turn effected his profit. It was a strange way of doing business but equally as interesting as when I had first learned the ins and outs of Richmonds.

"Look, tell you what, you think it over for a few days and if you want to come aboard the SS Tobuscus for a cruise of craziness lemme know."

* * *

A day later I was back to sitting on my bed browsing the cornucopia of randomness that was Youtube still attempting to figure out if it would be a good move for me. Though he wasn't at the top of the website's list of favourites, Toby wasn't too far off for his goal of popularity to not be impossible. The good thing was that he did indeed have business smarts. He had chosen a demographic and had stuck with it and slowly but surely he was picking up interest from his target audience.

"Oh screw it." I mumbled grabbing my phone and bring up his ID (which funnily enough I still hadn't changed from 'Taxi').

"Hello? Dominos is that you 'cause I do believe you're over thirty minutes late." His voice greeted. Before I could answer him a burst of laughter broke free. "Dude, I'm just messing. I knew it was you."

"You saved my number under 'Dominos Pizza'?"

"You have mine under 'Taxi'. It's cool, like a covert agent name."

"Yeah, that's some real James Bond crap you got going on there."

Another loud laugh came from his end of the line. "So, how's thing's going?" His casual tone was convincing as he smoothly rolled off the question.

"Not bad. The Vespa's running fine."

"Good to hear." Was he really going to drag this out? I cleared my throat.

"So.. I was thinking about that offer you gave me the other day."

"They whole you being Pepper Potts thing?"

"This personal assistant job you were proposing." I corrected putting emphasis on the title so that it wouldn't get muddled up with some comic book character.

"Oh yeah!" He feigned remembering his offer. "So what d'ya say? Wanna come work for a slacker?"

"Yes."

"Awesome! This is gonna be so frickin' cool. Just you wait there's like tons of stuff I've got planned." He had quickly reverted back to the excitable puppy I had chatted with just the other day over the matter.

"Toby. Toby!" He eventually ceased blabbering. "Listen, I want to meet up so that we can establish some ground rules and discuss the parameters of my working for you."

"God gang it. Is there no escape from the paperwork mountain?" He moaned.

"Just a little more and then you'll never have to worry about the boring stuff again." I vowed.

God only knows what I just signed up for.


	8. Chapter 7: 'Owned'

**Author's Notes:**

Woo, NaNo was a word count win! To celebrate I quickly typed a new chapter. Thank you, Tospringe for letting me know how I'm doing so far. :) If you haven't seen the video I mention in this chapter, what are you waiting for? Go find it because Toby has some mad guitar skills!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/ Tobuscus or Gryphon. Jack Daniels do not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 7: The word you're looking for is 'owned'**

Toby couldn't keep the grin from his face. He couldn't quite believe someone was willing to do all those bothersome, tedious chores that he was always putting off until the last minute due to his sheer disdain for them. He would come across as pretty damn professional with the likes of Kate running around after him, making sure he got to meetings and appointments on time. He could even branch out and try at auditioning for adverts again.

Gryphon's shrill barks snatched him from his planning the future which involved a hell of a lot more hours of gaming. He got up and swanned through the house to answer the door.

"Why hello there, future employee," he beamed, swinging the door open to allow her access. His smile faltered when he spotted the fat wad of papers held to her chest. "Er.. What's that you got there?"

"A draft of my contract and a few other things that we'll go over before I agree to working for you."

"This is going to take longer than I anticipated…" His mind surged for a way to distract her from wanting to plough through the slew of paperwork. It was a Sunday for crying out loud. Who does paperwork on a Sunday? "Maybe I should go fetch some coffee."

"We can make do with the stuff you've got in the kitchen for now," she smiled sweetly, sussing him out quicker than he had expected. She brushed past and strolled into the lounge. Gryphon was trotting circles around her in want for attention from his visitor. Toby hung his head and shuffled after her. "Here, you can make a start while I whip up some coffee for you." She held out the chunk of papers out to him.

"Awesome." He accepted them with a half-hearted grin. She left him and moved into the kitchen, the shih-tzu shadowing her, the clink of his nails rattling out on the linoleum.

He sighed and slumped down to the couch. _It was a Sunday, a freaking Sunday! Thou shalt do a butt load of paperwork on the Lord's Day_. Reading the contract over it was the typical things he would have expected as terms. It discussed hours and vacation days yet as he continued to read he came across a section that suddenly snatched his full focus to the page.

"What the-? I can't film you?" he called out. She poked her head into the room from the kitchen door.

"Nope."

"Why the devil not?" His question deemed worthy enough for her to step fully into the room. He noted she still held onto the spoon she had used to dish the coffee into the machine.

"You said it yourself- this should be treated as temp work. In order for me still to be seen employable by other prospective companies I shouldn't be irresponsible and delve too deeply into the world of social media."

"Oh, come on! What's the point of me having a personal assistance if I can't gloat about it?"

"You can gloat all you like. You can mention you have an assistant, however, I do not give consent for me being filmed in any of your videos or the use of my name."

"Well that sucked all the fun out it," he pouted.

"You'll just have to weigh that up against your continuing to do your own doing paperwork then."

"Hmm, I do hate paperwork." He pretended to mull the matter over. She laughed and returned back to check on the brewing coffee.

* * *

After spending the afternoon hashing out the factors of my working for Toby, I left him with the draft of the contract that had been drawn up. The hours were the same I had worked for Richmonds yet the pay was minimum. Despite Toby's want to increase the amount I insisted it stay the same as I was more than grateful at him offering to give me work until I found a new job. I didn't want to be taking advantage of that generosity of his.

. . .

A few days passed. I was stretched out on my front on my bed, laptop open and slowly working my way through the abundance of videos he had spread out over his three channels. This research had been going on since I had got home on Sunday as I had decided it was best I seemed well-informed on my new employer. He was nuts. Incredibly comical, but nuts. A knock at the door stirred me from concentrating on my laptop. I pull my headphones from my ears and got up to go answer it.

"Hey. There's like a ginormous ton of laundry I need taking care of. Sign here, please!" He jutted out the contract papers. His name was already signed.

"I'm not doing your laundry, Toby," I smirked, pushing the door open wider before turning to pace further into my apartment. He followed, closing the door behind him.

"Please? It's affecting my work! You should be preventing things from preventing the sheer amount of awesome I've got stored up in this here brain of mine to be captured on camera," he whined.

"Speaking of which, I've doing research on that." I turned and took the hold of the papers he was still holding out to me.

"My sheer awesomeness? I don't think that can be studied." I gestured to the open laptop, his channel visible on the screen. "Ah, right."

"You stopped swearing."

"Dang it, did I go and leave my Tourette's at home again? I should really be more careful where I leave that syndrome lying around."

"In the earlier videos you used to curse but then you phased it out. Which got me thinking- you don't curse that much off camera, well, not that I've noticed."

"Then prepare to have your mind blown, missy." He cleared his throat for dramatic effect. "Fuck."

"Wow." I laid the sarcasm on thick.

"Oh just you wait, there's more." He puffed out his chest and placed his hands at his hips in a stance much like a superhero would don whilst giving a speech of justice. Before he could rattle off a string of f-bombs I walked passed him over to the kitchen in search of a pen.

"That won't be necessary," I dismissed with a lazy flap of my hand.

"How about proving I can still knock back the booze like a college kid?" He was referring to the video I had been watching before he had burst in waving the contract around. It was a very early one of him playing Classical Gas by Mason Williams on the guitar as a bet to his teacher that he could learn it in under a week. Before he started playing he had taken a swig of Jack Daniels as motivation.

"As much as I don't think it appropriate to start drinking with my boss, I have no booze to speak of anyway."

He quickly returned to the superhero pose saying, "No booze, you say? Quick, to the bar… or failing that a liquor store!"

"On a Wednesday afternoon?" I asked over my shoulder as I rummaged around in a draw that had all random items stuffed in it in hope to locate a pen.

"We've gotta have your induction day sometime. I figured the sooner, the better."

"At a bar?"

"Yeah. Work wise I don't run a very tight ship, it's more a casual ship- like those party boats you see on MTV where everyone's all drunk and dancing on deck in their swimsuits. Man, I would love to work on one of those. I could shake it 'til my heart's content." I guess by 'shaking it' he meant dancing. I had seen his moves whilst working my way through his videos. They were original to say the least. I finally located a pen.

"Hey, Lord of the Dance, I'm signing this thing." He hustled up to my side and watched as I scrawled my name in the required place. With the deed done I handed the papers back to him.

"Oh see, now we _have_ to go and get a drink to celebrate you landing a job." He grinned.

We had ended up in a dive of a bar around the corner from my place. Sat at the long stretch of bar that was dimly lit with a line of low hanging lights overhead. The bartender, an old surly type, slapped down our requested drinks in front of us before shuffling off to go serve another customer. Toby lifted his bottle of beer.

"Congrats, dude."

"Thanks." I bumped my glass of gin and tonic against his bottle before taking a swig. It had been a while since I had had a drink, the crisp taste of it was wonderfully refreshing.

We chatted about Tobuscus and all of the channel's ins and outs, like the whole merchandise that was available.

"Just so you know, I'm not wearing one of those."

"Come on, you gotta!"

"Nope."

"Okay, okay, how about you only have to wear one at conventions then?" This sparked a long explanation on his part of how conventions were a big part of his channels. His beer was easily polished off during this time. He went to get the attention of the bartender. I glanced at the dregs in my own glass, an idea sparking in my mind.

"Tell you what. I will happily wear one of those t-shirts, one condition."

"Name it!"

"You can out drink me."

"Oh dude, oh you are so wearing a Tobuscus shirt. I'm going to get you one in every colour so you can wear one everyday 'cause you're goin' down! We got any rules for this drink-a-thon?"

"Here's how it's going to work: we each order four shots, the one who finishes first wins and loser picks up the tab. There's just one rule: you can't touch any of your opponent's glasses."

"Wait, do we have to shot the same kind of drink or can we chug whatever we want?"

"Whatever you want."

"Barkeep!" he hollered excitedly, oblivious to the sour stare he was reward with from the guy. "Can I get eight shots? Four shots of Jack Daniels and whatever the lady wants."

The stony-faced bartender nodded and went about lining up eight shots glasses before sloshing a good slug of whiskey in to half of them.

"I'll have tequila."

"Tequila? Geez, if you wanna wear a Tobuscus t-shirt so bad I'll happily give you this one right here, right now." He tugged at the green shirt he had teamed up with a dark pair of checked trousers that looked almost like pyjama pants.

"That won't be necessary." I dismissed as I watched the tavern owner pour tequila into the remaining glasses. Toby slid mine over to me, a smug smile taking his lips.

"On three?" His hands hovered before his line of drinks in anticipation.

"On three."

"One, two, three!"

As expected he attacked the shots, whacking back the first one with a grimace and already reaching for a second. I knocked back the remainder of my gin and tonic before up turning the glass upon the very last of the glasses in his line of shots, which was still full with Jack Daniels. He frowned as he swallowed the second, noticing my now empty glass encased the brimming shot glass. I leisurely picked up my first shot and took a small sip, which was hard to do when fighting off a smile.

"Hey, what gives?" He moved to pick my glass up from covering his own.

"If you do that, you lose. You can't touch any of my glasses, remember?" His hand hovered over the drinks glass for a moment as it dawned on him I had just hustled him. I took my time to sink back each shot before turning to him and allowing the smile to finally break free on my lips. "I believe the word you're looking for is 'owned'." I mimicked the self-satisfied zinger he had used at the end of Classical Gas for Class video that had sprung our whole merry drinking session to passing.

"Nope, I'm pretty sure it's an f-bomb I really want to say now. That is a dirty, dirty trick!" He slugged down his third one before glancing at his trapped remaining shot. "Where'd you learn that?"

"I was a waitress at one of the college bars when I attended. You pick up a thing or two from fellow students who are looking to cheat you out of a few free drinks."

* * *

Now go watch that video! And while you're there check out the one of him playing Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters' and 'The Girlfriend Song', oh and the lazyvlog where he plays the guitar shirtless... as you can tell I like it very much when he plays the guitar. :P


	9. Chapter 8: Cats and Bullets

**Author's Note:**

As always any reviews, favs and follows are greatly appreciated! First days at work suck and I'm not going to let Kate get away with having probably the best job ever so damn easily! Mwhahaha!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. Kill Bill does not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Cats and Bullets**

They stayed at the bar longer than intended as when they exited it, it was dark and the air had taken on a cooler tone. The breeze swept her hair back over her shoulders as she strolled in front of him. He caught a hint of her perfume, a delicate floral scent that vanished as swiftly as it had greeted him. He caught up, falling in pace with her, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

"You going to be okay to drive home?" Though the beers and shots hadn't caused him to be outwardly drunk he did feel that slight giddy buzzy of being tipsy. He was probably over the limit.

"Didn't really think that one through, did I?"

"Don't worry. I have the number of an excellent taxi firm" she wisecracked, flashing a wicked grin. He childishly stuck his tongue out in response. As they walked along a suddenly wonderful smell greeted him. Indian food. His stomach growled in want.

"Oh man, I could really go for some of that!" He stopped at the restaurant's window.

. . .

Sat cross legged at the tiniest coffee table he had ever come across, foil containers full of rice and curry, beer bottle in one hand, fork in the other Toby nearly choked on his food for laughing.

"Holy shit that's hot! What the hell did you order?" Kate coughed, eyes watering before taking a long glug of her beer.

"It's only a madras, dude. You think that's spicy you should try a vindaloo."

"No thank you," she said after cooling her tongue with her drink.

They had ordered take-away and were enjoying it in her apartment, the old TV set blaring out some reality programme that neither of them were paying much attention to. He really couldn't get used to how pokey her place was. She didn't even have a couch, just an armchair that had seen better days.

She picked up her fork again and returned to eating her own food.

"So…" he drawled, searching for a subject. He was tempted to ask whether she was settling in to the apartment well but he knew her dislike for the place.

"So." She finished chewing on her mouthful before continuing. "I'll come by yours tomorrow so we can go over your books and everything."

"Books? Ha! I don't read."

"Well, not actual books, I mean like your schedule and the planning for your upcoming workload for the year." She took a swig of beer. "I've managed to get another phone from a friend of mine. We'll set it up so that I'll have all your details, schedules, appointments, etc. on it so I can consult it anytime."

"Maybe you should have me fitted with a tracking device too," he scoffed.

"Trust me, in work hours I won't be leaving your side much."

"That's gonna mess up my vlogging then seems as you insist on not being filmed."

"I'm sure we can work round that. I'll sit in the other room to do my work or something."

"That's not going to work at all. If you haven't noticed I like to pace when vlogging. I'm surprised there isn't a worn track around my house from all the back and forth I do!" He was about to take another bite of his food when he paused, fork heaped with curry hovering before his slightly open mouth, a look of realisation upon him.

"You forgot to vlog didn't you?"

"Dang it!" He slapped his fork down and fidgeted around in attempt to pull his iPhone from his pants.

"Dang it?" she teased. He pulled a face.

"Ugh, fine. God damn it!"

"You stopped swearing to suit your younger audience members, right?"

"Yeah, that and for my mom. She hates it. I was always getting a bar of soap shoved in my mouth growing up." He smirked as he went about setting his phone up. "This shit's 'bout to go down so I'd evacuate the building unless you got a lawyer on speed dial."

"But I haven't finished eating."

"Sorry sister but when you gotta vlog- you gotta vlog!" He leaned over the table so that the phone was ready to record a shot of the remaining contents of his take-away container.

"Ugh, fine." She got up, taking her own container with her. She was almost out of the apartment when she suddenly turned and hurried back to the table. "I'll be needing this too." She grabbed her beer bottle.

With her finally out of view, Toby pressed record.

"Audience! Wha-? What are you doing nose deep in Indian food- my Indian food?!" He whipped the phone round. "Pfft! It's not _that_ spicy, dude. You want spicy try a vindaloo- that stuff hurts going out as well as in!" He rattled off a burst of laughter before jabbing his finger at the camera announcing, "Intro of Darkness, then Redness, then Whiteness!" The image reacting accordingly until it once more managed to refocus on his face. "Oh my god, so much has happened in the world of Buscus since I last vlogged, which I know was only like yesterday but what can I say I live a very hectic lifestyle. So I am now the proud owner of a personal assistant! I know, right? Check me out gettin' all professional. I'm at her place right now but she won't be makin' a debut 'cause she's camera shy… well, by camera shy I mean I'm not allowed to film her or mention her name. So she's kinda off to the side with Steven."

He turned his head and looked out of the camera's reach and said, "Steven! Steven, meet… erm." He pulled a stumped face. "Hmm the name thing is going to be problem. Can't we just bleep it out like they did with Beatrix Kiddo in Kill Bill? What? No? Why the nugget sauce not?" He feigned listening, bobbing his head and uttering the odd 'uh-huh' before speaking to him again. "Because this is a lazy vlog and the reason it's lazy is because it's the only videos I have to edit? Well then, what do I pay you for?" There was another pause. "What, I don't pay you at all? Dang straight! You're a slacker Steven! Now if you'd be so kind to tell assistant girl that she is also working for free I'd super appreciate it!" Another pause as the off to the side editor replied. "Dude, you have a filthy mouth on you, you should be ashamed."

He turned his head to once to address the audience. "Seriously, I can't believe he kisses his mother with that mouth! And yes, I'm very much aware it's beginning to look like I have a multi-personality disorder but I swear I'm sane!" He pulled a crazy face before he crumbled into another bout of laughter. "I really need come up with an alias for her seems as she'll kill me if I mention her real one. Assistant Gurl? Assitanator? Assitantzor? Hmmm… Post in the comments!"

He went on to explain that with Kate's help he'd be able to increase his video uploads on a daily basis and then moved on to discuss his upcoming Tobuscus and Tobygames projects. As always he wrapped up the video with an outro of 'Darkness, then Redness, then Whiteness' and a 'Boop!'.

With the lazy vlog done he quickly went about uploading it. He went to take another bite of his food to find it had grown cold. Sighing, he pulled himself to his feet and went to find Kate. Opening the apartment's door, the night air greeted him in a barely there breeze. She was sat on the steps, the container empty, head lifted to look at the hazy sky in hopes to catch snatches of the starlight through the smog. He plonked himself down next to her and tilted his head to also gaze at the blurry blackness overhead. He knew she wasn't really searching for a star's flicker or even watching the flashing red lights of the occasional aeroplane leisurely ploughing through the night above, she was elsewhere thinking of stuff that had probably led her at this point in her life.

"Done?" She asked her eyes still to the sky.

"Done." He nodded eyes also remaining overhead.

"Good."

* * *

As sleep was slowly loosening its grip on me a smile formed on my lips. It felt like forever since I had slept at Ben's side. A sleepy sigh rolled from me as I snuggled further into his embrace so that my nose was pressed against his neck. He smelt unfamiliar, beer and the faint hint of cologne that wasn't his typical worn fragrance seemingly affecting his usual musk. I frowned, slumber slipping from me as I cracked open an eye to survey my surroundings. It suddenly dawned on me like a blow to the head that I wasn't happily curled up with my future husband in our king size bed in our lovely apartment. I was in my new, crappy apartment. What was worse was the body I had mistaken for my lover's was in fact someone else's. I blinked again as I noticed the curl of hair at his neck. Dipping my head back slowly as not to wake him I realised the other body I was tangled up with in fact belonged to my new boss! How the hell did that happen?

Luckily he was still deep in sleep and so I gingerly attempted to pull myself back and away from him yet he felt this and tightened his embrace, drawing me closer. A drowsy mutter coming from him that sounded like, 'Five more minutes and I'll get up 'kay?' He must have been dreaming of someone else too. This close proximity caused a surge of heat to uncurl from my stomach. I could hear the steady, rhythmic beat of his heart. It matched well with the sound of his relaxed breathing and it almost swayed me to seek sleep once more. I fought off the urge. Though we were undoubtedly inappropriately close, a small part of me didn't wish to shrink away from him and this frightened me more than the impending discomfort that would surely ensue from him waking any moment now. My flurried thinking was disrupted by him stirring. His movements were short lived as he quickly stiffened. _Crap_. The suddenly stifling silence was eventually relieved by his hoarse voice.

"Kate.. you awake?" he asked softly.

Due to my head being tucked under his chin he was unsure if I was indeed still in slumber or if I had frozen also. I suddenly realised my hand was resting against his chest as his usual steady heartbeat was beginning to quicken. I answered him with a nod. "Awesome. What a great, extremely appropriate way to start our work relationship… in bed… hugging. Totally not awkward at all." He rambled, his voice still thick from sleep seemed to hum from his chest at this proximity.

"Erm, Toby.." I racked my suddenly blank mind in hope to offer something up to lessen the unease.

"My arm's gone dead." He finally announced.

The arm that wasn't pinned under me slowly uncurled from around my waist. I moved to untangle my legs from his and quickly rolled away from him before sitting up, my back to him. I peered over my shoulder at him to see he was concentrating too hard on wiggling his fingers to return the blood flow back to his limb.

"Probably best we forget this ever happened, huh?" The question came from me in an uneasy giggle.

He looked up from his still waggling hand to glance at me, there was something going on behind those hazel eyes of his, as if he was thinking something through at a quick pace. He opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and snapped it shut. He voiced nothing for a long moment until he seemed to settle on a decision as to whatever the hell he was internally debating and said, "Dude, your TV's still on."

. . .

Later that morning we had gone our separate ways to go about our morning routines with the plan of meeting up at his house to begin going over things. It was my turn to fetch the coffee. Stood in the Coffeebean waiting for my order to be whipped up, I tried not to focus on replaying this morning's scenario. Last night, after Toby had finished vlogging he had joined me out on the steps for a while. We had returned to the apartment only to find that Lord of the Rings was playing on the TV. I made the error of mentioning I had never seen it all the way through which made him insist I watch it. Its long stretch must have proved too much as we had both fallen asleep on my bed that we had crashed on seems as the floor or armchair wasn't very comfortable. I recalled how he had been sprawled out on his front, facing the idiot box, resting on his elbows so that he could prop his chin up. He watched television much like a child would, fidgeting and occasionally excitedly informing, 'Oo, oo, this bit's good!'

Although nothing had happened, that much was obvious due to the fact we had both been fully clothed (I still had my flats on too), I felt guilty about the embrace we had been clinched in. Not only had it been totally inappropriate it was too jarringly close to what had happened to have cost me everything I had loved about my life.

The call of my order pulled me from my reflecting. I gladly snapped back to the now and went to retrieve my coffee.

At Toby's house I walked in to find he was pacing and typing on his phone. His head jerked up at my entry. He quickly shoved the device in his trouser pocket and picked up a book.

"Welcome aboard! I'm kinda behind with a few edits that I needed to have done like last week so I'll give you this and you can start to update stuff 'til I'm done. 'kay?" He held out the tatty looking navy book.

"What is it?" I asked accepting it, flipping it over.

"Duh, a personal organiser," he laughed.

"From last year." I noticed as I flicked through the pages.

"Yeah, I thought it a waste of money to buy one for this year when I had a blank one just lying around. You get used to the date changes.. kinda."

"This is going to take forever."

"Most of my paperwork does. Well, enjoy! I'll be in there if ya need me." He quickly scampered away into his recording room, coffee in hand before I could voice my dismay further. I rolled my eyes and strolled over to my own work station that I had set up on the dining table and setting the ledger and my own cup of coffee down.

. . .

"Toby!" I hollered whilst squinting at his handwriting. "Toby!" I sighed and got up, taking the organiser with me. I wandered through the house to him. He had his headphones on, taking a sip of his drink as he concentrated on the screen. He noticed my entrance as he pulled the headset from his head.

"Whaddup?"

"I can't make out your chicken scratch handwriting. What does this say? 'Oolong's Biweekly'?" I pointed at the date logged under November. He put his cup down and took the organiser from me to frown at it.

"Oh wait. Don't worry about logging that. I won't forget that." His cheery tone didn't seem to meld with the sudden dismissal of my enquiry. Now I was curious.

"Why, what's it say?" I accepted the organiser again.

"Olga's Birthday," he mumbled into the rim of his plastic cup before taking a sip.

"Oh, she family?" He coughed on his coffee probably caught unawares by my question. Such a reaction suggested that she wasn't a relative.

"No, ex-girlfriend actually." He coughed again still seeming to recover from chocking on his drink. His hacks became more and more rasping prompting me to move to pat him on the back in hope to rid him of them. It was as my hand was upon his back I felt it. He was warm, feverishly warm.

"Jesus, you're burning up. You okay?" He continued to cough and wheeze.

"The coffee… did you order it… with soya milk instead of regular?"

"Yeah, just as you asked." I took the cup from him and inspected it, a thought flashing through my head. "I ordered yours with soya, mine with half-fat milk." I took a quick swig. It didn't have the sweet, creamy taste of soya milk. "This is mine. Crap, I must have got them mixed up. Please don't tell me you're allergic to dairy."

"Just a little."

"How did you not notice it didn't taste like soya?"

"Chewing.. gum.. whilst.." He broke off into another series of rattling coughs. Red splotches were beginning to bloom on his neck and face and his eyes were streaming due to his constant coughing.

"Shit! Do you have an EpiPen or something?"

"Epi for… anaphylactic shock." He wheezed.

"And what do you think this is? A scratchy throat?" The panic in my voice overwhelmed my intended sarcasm.

"Bad.. reaction. Antihistamines in the… bathroom cabinet."

I was already snapped up straight and flying from the room to make for the bathroom down the hall. I slammed to a stop before the sink and hurriedly rummaged through the toiletries and pills that lined the cabinet. With a selection of different types in hand, I dashed back through to him, passing a bewildered Gryphon who had been disturbed from his afternoon nap by the sudden commotion.

"I didn't know which one." I fanned out the packets to show him. "Which one?"

"Benadryl."

Dealing out the dose I handed him a half drunk bottle of water that was sat on his keyboard where the sheet music normally was held. I watched as he took the pills.

"Okay, get up, I'm taking you to the hospital." He made a noise of disapproval taking another careful sip of water. "Yes, you are. Get the hell up or I'll just wheel that chair over to your car."

"Ugh… fine." He clambered to his feet and I ushered him through the house to the front door. Gryphon tailed us, thinking the sudden flurry of activity would mean he was getting a walk. Snatching up required items of his I pushed him out of the door with a flap of my hands.

"Don't worry Gryph, we'll be back before you know it." I reassured the puzzled dog as I went to close the door on him.

. . .

Five hours later we were in his car driving back. Though he had been rushed through to see a doctor due to his laboured breathing he had been kept in for observation for a while until the medical staff was sure the medication had worked. He had been right after all, it hadn't been anaphylactic shock due to his airway not swelling closed. The doctors had confirmed this much though still were glad we had decided to get him checked over due to the allergic reaction being a fairly nasty one.

He sat slumped in the passenger seat, the window rolled down so a breeze could weave through the car's interior. His breathing was back to normal but he seemed exhausted and some of the red splotches were still marring his skin. He looked ashen, as if he was nauseated yet the doctor had explained this was just another symptom of his allergy. A small chuckle came from him causing me to glance from the road to look at him.

"We seem to be spending a lot of time in the emergency room lately." It was his second trip in a month, his first visit being down to the scooter fiasco.

"I am so sorry. I should have doubled checked before giving you the coffee. I could have killed you."

"Nah, don't worry 'bout it. I guess I should have mentioned the whole allergic to dairy thing earlier."

"I need to know stuff like this, especially if I'm going to be getting your food and whatever. You allergic to anything else?"

"Cats and bullets. I'm deadly allergic to bullets I tend to just bleed all over the place," he smirked.

"Damn, that's my ideas for your Christmas presents out the window then," I countered. He laughed at that. Even feeling dreadful and looking like crap he still managed to make that laughter of his contagious.

Back at his house, I left him seems as it was late and he was advised to get plenty of rest. Driving back to my own place on my Vespa I suddenly realised how tired I was, all the panic and worry had drained me of my energy. What a terrible first day.


	10. Chapter 9: No Tweets About My Driving

**Author's Notes:**

Any reviews, favs or follows are greatly appreciated! I've been getting a lot of hits too so thanks for anyone who decided to give this thing a read!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. Xbox Kinects does not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 9: No vlogging, no instagraming and no tweets about my driving abilities. **

It was two weeks after the milk mishap. I had finally managed to organise Toby's already booked appointments and schedules, continued in my research into Youtube, met with his other employers at Machinima, and found out he had made a lazy vlog entitled, 'My Assitantzor tried to KILL me!'. I hadn't been too pleased about that one but I guess I had accidentally caused him harm… twice now.

By now we had finally settled into a daily routine. It went very much like this:

**8:00 am**

The shriek of my alarm jerked me awake from the quickly fleeting ghost of a dream. I groaned and groped with a sleep heavy hand for my phone to stop it from bleeping at me. After a moment of deliberating whether or not I could fit in another five minutes snooze time, I turned it off and dragged myself from bed. The thump of reggaeton was already singing out and mingling with the constant drip of the kitchen's leaky faucet. To fight off this unwelcoming chorus, I quickly scrolled through the music selection stored on my phone and hit up a song- 'Hotel Yorba' by The White Stripes and move through into the pokey bathroom. Leaving the phone blaring on the basin counter, I fired up the shower. It spluttered and rattled until finally pushing out a constant jet of warm water.

"Well it's 1, 2, 3, 4 take the elevator at the hotel Yorba, I'll be glad to see ya later! All they got inside is vacancy!" I joined in at the chorus as I soaped up my hair, very much aware I sounded like a wounded cat. "And it's a 4, 5, 6, 7 grab your umbrella, grab hold of me 'cause I'm your favourite fella! All they got inside is vacancy!" Luckily, the song quickly ended before I could cause it further damage with my singing abilities and another quickly played to take its place.

Snatching up a towel, I stepped out and cut the water off, quickly wrapping myself in it. It was scratchy from the cheap detergent I had bought when washing my clothes at the laundry mat. Wrapping my sopping wet hair in a smaller towel, I padded through to the bedroom.

I examined the contents of my hanging rail that was pushed against the wall not far from my bed. The usual little sundresses had been ditched for more durable, easy to wear items. Skinny jeans and long delicate tops, day dresses that stopped past the knee teamed with a little denim jacket and today's option: a maxi skirt with a fitted camisole top. My new work wardrobe was far more casual than my usual one that had consisted of tailored pencil skirts with shirt and blazer, tailored trousers with peplum tops or little pencil dresses.

Dry and dressed, I returned to the bathroom and wiped the condensation from the mirror with a few swipes of my hand. I went about blow-drying my hair, giving up when it was near dry and instead turned my attention to applying light make-up.

With my appearance seen to I went about gathering the odds and ends required for my new work routine. With them shoved into my satchel and my laptop in a portable bag, I killed the cheery blast of Jack Johnson's 'At Or With Me', and also added my personal phone into the bowels of my bag.

**8:45 am**

Whizzing along the traffic bustling roads on the Vespa, I was very used to ducking and weaving through cars who ignored my existence on the road altogether (or who only ever acknowledged it with the beep of a car horn). The smell of gasoline fumes graced the morning air and although the sun was clawing at the sky its heat hadn't quite kicked in yet. Getting across town to Toby's place could be hazardous in morning traffic but eventually I made it there just before nine o'clock.

Unclasping the retro helmet, I pulled it from my head. I hardly ever wore the goggles that sat on its crown, they were more for show. I parked the Vespa, kicking the stand and then unlocking the seat compartment to retrieve my stowed handbag. I liked arriving that bit earlier then usual as there's the chance I could catch a quick word with Jen.

She strolled down the drive way just as I was gathering my things from the scooter.

"Hey, trouble," she brightly greeted.

"Morning, Jen."

"How's it going working for the weirdo?" She jerked her chin to the neighbouring house.

"I'll have you know he's a very successful weirdo." She raised her eyebrows in want for me to actually answer her question. "It's going good. It's way easier than my last job but I guess it's a good filler until I manage to land one more suitable." She nodded. "How's Greg?" Last time we had spoken she had mentioned he had a big report to deliver at his work and he wouldn't shut up going on about it to her. If I remembered correctly it was due today.

"Fine. You just missed him. He's worrying about that damn progress report his boss keeps harping on about though."

"At least after today it's over and done with."

"Yeah." There was a pause. I hitched up the satchel on my shoulder it sat awkwardly against the laptop bag I was also wearing. "You should call in after you're finished for a drink or something so we can get a proper catch up."

"Sure, but I don't always stick to the usual 9 to 5 routine, you know."

"I'm just saying there's a mojito with your name on it whenever you're ready."

"Thanks, Jen."

"De nada, fea. (_You welcome, ugly_)" She ducked into her car.

"Adios, caraculo (_Bye,_ a_ssface_)." I waved goodbye, a smile on my lips. She had heard me as she stuck her tongue out at me as she pulled out of the driveway.

I turned and walked up the driveway to Toby's house and began to rummage around in my handbag for my keys. Due to his daily routine starting later than mine not to mention he wasn't always as home when I called round, he had decided to get me a key cut. The door yawned open to reveal the whole house was still engulfed in darkness. I sighed and stepped in, trying to remember what the luxury of sleeping in felt like. The click of a certain shih-tzu's nails against the floorboards rattled throughout the lounge as I stumbled about opening curtains and blinds to let in natural light.

"Buenos dias, Gryphon! Has dormido bien? (_Good morning, Gryphon! Did you sleep well?_)" I cooed at the dog that was scampering around me. "Of course you did! Look at all the energy you have." I placed my laptop bag and satchel on my now claimed work space on the dining room table to dish out all the unnecessary items. Once it was lighter, I ducked my head into the corridor that led to the bathroom and bedroom.

"Toby! Get up! It's gone nine O'clock!" I called. One of the agreements we had made was that his bedroom was off limits, especially if he was in it. It was difficult that his personal space doubled as a work environment for us both so for reasons for his privacy the rule had been put into play.

"Meh!" came the muffled response.

"Get up! I'm taking Gryphon out!" I turned and slung the satchel over my shoulder. Gryphon had already become accustomed to the new routine as he was waggling and scurrying underfoot as I made my way to the door. I snapped the leash onto his collar and opened the door. "I'm getting you the usual!" I informed before closing the door behind me.

**9.25 am**

"Hell, Toby wasn't kidding when he said you went to the toilet a lot, Gryph." I wrinkled my nose at the dog that was happily wagging his tail at me after completing his latest doggy deposit. I set the drinks tray down and pulled a poop bag from the roll that was attached to his leash. Luckily, after that he didn't squeeze out anything else bag worthy.

Unlocking the door once more, I stepped inside, attempting to not get caught up with the bundle of cream fur that had suddenly stopped trotting in front of me.

"Toby, your butt better be out of bed!" I warned as I ambled around Gryphon. He poked his head through into the lounge.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Though he was indeed awake, he was still in his sleep gear. I opened my trusty laptop up and fired it up. He ducked back into the safety of his bedroom before I could say anything about his laziness.

He soon emerged decked in shorts, t-shirt and running shoes. He strolled over to the dining table, and plucked his cup from the tray and took a swig.

"Can you make me breakfast?"

"I could but I've got work to do right here." I waved a finger at the laptop.

"Aww, please? I'm hungry now and that means when I get back I'll still be hungry but then I'll be too tried from jogging to cook!" I sighed,

"You want anything in particular?" I diverted my attention from the stream of e-mails to peer up at him. His hair was sticking out in its usual crazy curls.

"French toast- No, no wait- an egg white omelette!" He patted his gut to signify its importance to his current workout routine.

"An omelette?"

"Yup, apparently all the triathlon goers eat it before or after a session. It's to do with the protein leading to muscle mass or something," he informed, fiddling with his ipod. He lifted his head and quirked an eyebrow. "You do know how to make one, right?"

"Yes, of course I do!" I swatted his arm. He laughed at my response, ducking away from my attack, coffee still in hand.

"Well, just so you know, even though I'll enjoy it at the time of consumption I can't have cheese or regular milk in it, remember?" he teased. I threw the nearest acceptable arsenal at my disposal at him, a pen. It smacked him in the chest. Another roll of laughter came from him. "Geez, dude, don't take it so personally! I'll be kind enough to keep it out of your recommendation letter if you put me in hospital again," he snickered.

"Go for a run already, Toby."

"Why? You gonna run after me with a carton of milk otherwise?"

"Oh, don't tempt me."

He left, chuckling.

**10:16 am**

My attention to the usual e-mails, posts and other odds and ends that Toby received overnight had long strayed to the simpler task of fixing his breakfast. I flipped the omelette, thankful it hadn't burnt (for I would never hear the end of it) and drained the remains of my morning coffee. There wasn't much left in his fridge and so I had quickly scribbled down a shopping list that would need doing today.

The front door whacked open and in stumbled a tired and huffing Toby.

"Why did I say I was gonna start running again?" He panted as he sagged against the kitchen's doorframe.

"Because you're getting old." He made a noise of disapproval and wondered back into the lounge. I jiggled the frying pan so the egg wouldn't sort to stick."This thing's ready, you can shower afterwards."

"'Kay." He called back.

As he wolfed down his breakfast, I went about arranging today's schedule.

"You've got a dentist appointment at 2pm so I'll come with because I need to check your mail box and pick up some groceries. I'd start filming your gaming videos this morning seems as you might be tired after having your filling done this afternoon. "

"Mm hmm." He mumbled through a mouth of eggs.

**11:20 am**

My concentration to the laptop's screen was broken once more. I sighed and glanced up from it. The distraction was the incredibly loud shrieks coming from the recording room as Toby was playing video games.

"Aw, come on dude, come on! Don't make this awkward! Do _not_ make this awkward, dude! God DANG IT!"

No wonder Jen thought he was weird.

**1:31pm**

"Toby, get a move on already!" I called from the lounge consulting my work phone before dropping it into my satchel. He swanned in, attention to his own phone. He was wearing a grey/blue Aloha Surf Company t-shirt that he seemed to favour whenever he wasn't sporting his own merchandise.

"I can't find my wallet, or my keys." He began to shuffle around in search of them. I cleared my throat to get his attention. He looked over at me to see I had both of them one held in each hand.

"Great. Now, if you could help me find that stash of a million dollars I know I have lying around here somewhere, we can be on our way."

"Well it sure as hell isn't in your wallet." I laughed, handing over the items. He accepted the black, red and white striped wallet but wrinkled his nose at the keys.

"Nah-uh, you're driving, remember?"

"On the way back here."

"Dude, you're on my insurance now, I might as well abuse it. 'Sides you need to get used to driving my car 'cause you'll be doing a lot of it!"

"Fine, but when I'm driving there is no vlogging, no instagraming and no tweets about my driving abilities. I also get to choose the music."

"Hmmm that last one might be a deal breaker," he joked, pretending to mull it over.

"Come on, we're going to be late." I nudged him towards the door.

**1.49 pm**

"My ears!" He wailed in mock pain as I navigated the car towards the dentist surgery. "What _is_ this?"

"Muse." It was a track called 'Mirco Cuts' from one of their early albums, a mash of heavy guitar, piano, synthesised sounds and the singer wailing like a pissed-off cat. "Why? You don't like it?" I smiled.

"Maybe not at this volume." He moved a hand to the car stereo's volume button.

"Hey, you know the rules!" I brushed his hand away. He didn't have to endure much more old school Muse as it wasn't long before I pulled up to the kerb in front of the dentist's. "Call me when you're finished and I'll swing by to get you." He scrambled about unbuckling his seat belt and ducked out of the car.

"Yay, then I'll have sore teeth and ears." He smiled closing the door.

**2.30pm**

I had stopped by the post office and picked up the large amount of letters and boxes sent to Toby from his Audience. With the fanmail carefully loaded into the back of the car, I made my way to the store. Though I was surprised by how much he got mailed to him, I knew it shouldn't have as after all his house was decked in all kinds of Tobuscus artwork, the vast majority of which was fan-made.

At the store I zipped about, list in hand, acquiring all the needed items. With them paid for and bundled into grocery bags I trundled to the car. Just as I was rummaging for the keys with hands still full of carriers, my phone beeped. Sighing, I admitted defeat and set the bags on the floor so I could locate my work phone held in my satchel. It was Toby.

"Hello?"

"Hey. You finished running errands?" His speech sounded slightly slurred, probably due to them having to numb part of his mouth to do the procedure.

"Just loading the groceries into the car. I'll be like ten minutes, okay?"

"Yep. I need to vlog anyway."

"They gonna be able to understand you?"

"I like to throw a challenge at them every now and again."

"Lucky Audience."

"Hey, drop the sarcasm, missy, or I'll tell them about your driving abilities and questionable taste in music!"

"How I wish you could see I'm trembling in fear right now."

"Oh, that is it! You are so going down. I think I may cut your pay check, how'd you like the sound of that Lil' Miss Sarcastic?"

"Toby?"

"Yeah?"

"I have to go."

"Okay, bye! Miss you already!"

"Drop the sarcasm." I hung up and turned my attention back to the mass of shopping at my feet.

**3:07 pm**

Music blaring, this time the jittery tones of Two Door Cinema Club's 'I Can Talk', I rolled the car up to the kerb to see that Toby was indeed vlogging. Knowing he'd probably be a while, I put the car in park and dug my own phone out checking to see if I had any messages. I had one from Kayla. It read:

_'Hey, Katie! How's the new job going? I was talking to Nate and mentioned your new boss to him and he wouldn't shut up going on about his videos on Youtube so I checked some out. Apparently you nearly killed him! Lol, is he that bad? Xoxo.' _

I replied:

_'Hi! I wouldn't say bad, just very, very, very different. It's more like babysitting than being a PA really. He's dog's cute though.. and much better behaved. Maybe if Gryphon ever make's it big I can switch to being his assistant instead! How's CocoRosa going? I'm guilty of not having logged on in a while. Xxx.'_

The door had jerked open near the end of rattling off my message.

"Oooo! Who you sending kisses to?" he asked referring to the string of x's at the end of the text.

"My friend, Kayla."

"She sounds hot."

"She has a boyfriend."

"Backing off!" He held up his hands in emphasis before chuckling out that cheerful laughter of his.

"That's very considerate of you." I snorted, ditching my phone on the dashboard and firing up the car again. With the Two Door Cinema Club singing out once more, he frowned.

"Seriously? Where do find this music?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, you think yours is better?"

"Nope, but there _has_ to be something better on here." Before I could whack his hand away he snatched up the phone that was linked to the stereo and began to flip through the maxed out music storage on it. "Yeah!" He finally found one he liked and selected it.

The deep twang of a bass guitar rang out. He nodded his head and attempted to mimic the guitar before joining in with the lyrics, "Hey wait, great smile. Sensitive to faith not denial! But hey, who's on trial?" He was currently disgracing 'Evil' by Interpol, mumbling through the parts he didn't know only to belt out the chorus. "It took a life spent with no cell mate, the long way back. Sayin' meanwhile can't we look the other way?" That goofy grin was at his lips once more. "I take it back. Your tunes are pretty good. Well, some of 'em."

"This is coming from the guy who doesn't know the words to this song," I mocked.

"And you do?"

I joined in, "Leave some shards under the belly, lay some grease inside my hand. It's a sentimental jury, and the makings of a good plan. You've come to love me nightly, yeah you've come to hold me tight. Is this motion everlasting or do shutters pass in the night?"

"Rooosemary! Aww, heaven restores you in life!" He sang, though he quickly broke down in laughter. "I've never heard Interpol performed by a cat before. It's impressive!" A hand darted from the steering wheel to loosely clip him around the arm.

"Hey! I'm all injured from the dentist, stop picking on me!"

**3.25pm**

Opening the door to his house, Toby quickly scooped up the bristling bundle of fur that danced around his feet excitedly yapping in welcome.

"Hey, little biscuit!" He ruffled Gryphon's fur as the dog was clearly alarmed by his sudden departure from the safety of the ground.

"A little help?" I asked attempting to edge around him, arms full of grocery bags and fanmail. He turned, shifting his dog so he was held in one arm and carefully pulled a few carrier bags from my arms. Whilst in the kitchen, he set Gryphon down and busied himself rummaging through the bags in search of something in particular. Making me wish I hadn't requested his help after all.

"Where is it? Hmm. Oh, found 'em! Look Gryphzor! Tasty duck strip snackages! Do you wanna treat?" The dog happily waged his long tail in answer, though Toby decided to lend his vocal talents to voice the dog's thoughts, "_You lweave me stuck here awl by myself and then you try to buy my silwence with treats. I'm so telling Peta on you abwout you're neglectful ways_!" It was pretty fitting with the dog's usual grumpy face. He quickly reverted back to his own voice. "Dude, do you want one or not?" He opened the packet and plucked one out. "_Awlright, but I'm stwill not a happy bwunny_." He donned his own tone patiently explaining, "Nope that's 'cause you're a dog. We went over the difference like a hundred times." He placed the packet on the side and quietly mumbled in Gryphon's voice, "_Idiot_." He turned to face the little dog once more. "Huh?" Back to Gryphon's voice, "_I said, 'I luwv you_.'" He bowed down and patted him on the head with his free hand. "Awwww! I love you too, you little nugget!" The dog happily accepted the attention seems as he knew it would eventually lead to the goody. "_Yeah, yeah hand owver the treat_!"

He gave up the dog treat and the shih-tzu trotted off into the lounge to enjoy it. Toby straightened and noticed I had stopped in my unloading the shopping to watch the strange display. He laughed, a hand going to the back of his head. "What?"

**7:37pm**

"Kate?"  
"Hm?" I glanced up from my laptop to look over at him sat on the couch, his own macbook on the coffee table.

"My face is finally not numb." He prodded his right cheek.

"Good for you." I went about hacking at the keys again my focus once more to the e-mail I was rattling off.

"Kate?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna get Thai food?"

"'Kay."

**8:09pm**

Whilst eating the take-out, Toby's phone rang. He snatched it up and held it to his ear all the while shovelling food into his mouth.

"Mmph?" He managed to get out through mouthful of pad thai. He listened to caller for a while, his eyes suddenly lighting up with excitement. "Really? Can I hear it?" Another pause. "Sure, lemme check. Kate!" I looked up from my own food. "Have I got anything major to do tomorrow?"

"Not really, just the usual."

"Yeah, come 'round whenever then. Awesome, can't wait. See ya!" He hung up and attacked his food once more.

"So… who's coming tomorrow?" I asked seems as he was too busy eating to remember to inform me.

"Oh right! Sean, Sean Kiltzner. He's come up with the music for this song that I've had sat in my 'random but totally awesome ideas that need to be used' folder on my computer since like forever."

"This song have a name?"

"Erm.. hmmm." He seemed to mull it over. "Dunno something like 'Sideburn Song' or 'Ode to a Sideburn'." He caught that my eyebrows were raised in surprise. "Trust me, it's gonna sound awesome." His songs did seem to thrive on randomness, 'Dramatic Song' was clear proof of that.

**8:35pm**

Toby strolled into the lounge area just as I was packing up my laptop.

"That everything uploaded?" I asked.

"Yep, well it's uploading but I've set it to publish later so it'll get posted at the usual time tomorrow morning." He stretched and yawned. "You done for the day too?"

"Yeah." I moved to gather up the work cell and the tatty personal organiser that I still referred to every now and then.

"Wanna watch some Netflix? I got all kinds of stuff on there." He gestured to the huge flat screen TV that was mounted to the wall, an Xbox Kinects monitor mounted on the top of it. It definitely would be better than watching movies on my crappy TV.

"As tempting as that sounds. I'm going to call it a night, seems as I have to take a certain Poopzilla out for walks in the morning."

"Rain check then?"

"Deal." I picked up my helmet and bags. "See you tomorrow."

"'Night." He flopped down on the couch as I turned to leave, Gryphon moving from his doggy bed over to jump up and join him.

The air was cool outside and the street quiet. I slipped on the helmet and shoved my satchel in the seat compartment before swinging my leg over the bike and starting it up.

Riding along, the breeze raking rough fingers through my hair as it whipped out behind me I couldn't help but smile. I enjoyed my job.


	11. Chapter 10: Strategically Placed Cheese

**Author's Notes:**

Many thanks for the reviews, favs and follows -they make me smile. Skyblazeinfinity, I found that really funny because I usually make up OC names by combining names of characters/ things I like. Kate White came about due to Kate Austen from Lost and The White Stripes.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/ Tobuscus, Gryphon or Mr Klitzner! Subway does not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Strategically Placed Slice Of Cheese**

With his hair still wet from his shower, Toby ignored the fact that it was pretty much plastered to his forehead as there were far more important matters at hand- like scarfing down this morning's breakfast of pancakes. So much for the healthy egg white omelettes, oatmeal and fruit salads of his marathoner's diet he had vowed to keep. As he chewed on a mouthful, the buzzing of a phone shuddering along the table top pushed the instinct to reach for his phone. With his jaw still working on a mouthful of pancakes, phone in hand, he saw no caller ID had flashed up. He looked over at Kate to see her pick up one of her phones and quickly answer the call.

"Hi." Her voice was light and girlish instead of the usual business tone that she favoured for anyone trying to contact him. There was a pause and she glanced across at him, noticing she suddenly had an audience. "Yeah, hang on a minute." She rose from her seat at the dining room table and held the phone to her chest so she could tell him, "Won't be long, just got to take this." and quickly left the lounge to stand outside the front of the house to continue the call.

Five minutes later, with his pancakes devoured and her still outside his curiosity finally got the better of him. He wondered over to the window, empty plate in hand, to see if he could spot her. She was stood in front of her scooter, half-turned away from the house. Her hair was weaved in fish-tail braid today and she was absentmindedly fiddling with some strands that had worked free from it as she talked. It was definitely a personal call. He could tell by the way she was toeing the cut of grass by the kerb with her ballet flats, a smile to her lips. Probably that friend of hers she was texting yesterday… Kayla, was it? Shrugging it off, he wondered through to his recording room and fired up his computer.

. . .

"Hey!" She breezed into the recording room. "Why haven't you opened your Audience mail yet?"

"Erm.. Been busy recording stuff." He pointed to the computer to show he was editing the footage he had recorded earlier of a pretty much impossible to complete level on Happy Wheels.

"Well, make you sure you do. And have you vlogged yet?" The enquiry was delivered with a cheery smile.

"Naw, might do that when Sean gets here."

"Okay." She was about to turn to leave when she stopped herself and asked, "Want me to make you something for lunch? I can make a pretty mean sandwich that gives Subway a run for their money."

"Sure," he answered cautiously as if he were uncertain it was a trick question. She nodded and strolled off._ Where the hell had Lil Miss Sarcastic gone?_

"You're… perky today," he commented when she returned and placed a plate which had an impressive sandwich sat upon it down on his computer desk. "Kayla have good news for you or something?"

"Hmm?"

"When you were on the phone earlier."

"Oh! That wasn't Kayla.. it was my other friend." That small smile was on her lips again, the one that he had noticed when she had been on the phone.

"Well, tell them to call more often please! It does wonders for your temperament." A sour scowl quickly replaced her previous pretty expression and she picked up the plate again and sauntered out. "Hey! Where are you takin' my sandwich?"

"Depriving you of food also does 'wonders for my temperament'."

* * *

The doorbell cheerfully chimed throughout the house. I got up and moved from my work desk to go answer it but nearly got mowed down by the whirlwind of eagerness that rocketed into the room gleeful exclaiming, "Sean's here! Sean's here! Sean's here!" as he tore passed. Even Gryphon seemed quick to get out of Toby's way in fear of being trampled underfoot.

"I think Sean's at the door, Gryph," I muttered to the stunned shih-tzu.

Toby threw open the door and greeted,"Come in, maestro of music!" He gave a grand sweep of his hand to motion for his friend to enter.

"I see someone's met their caffeine quota for the day," Sean smiled as he stepped through into the living room. Noticing me attempting to sooth Gryphon his grin grew as he said, "Let me guess, you're the assistant who tried to kill him, right? Hi, I'm Sean."

He was quite like Toby in the way of stature and colouring, the only differences was a slight stubble at his jaw and that his hair was straight rather than a mass of messy curls. I caught the glimpse of a ring on his left hand- no surprise there, he was handsome and quick witted, those kind of guys didn't stay single for long.

"Kate," I returned. "Fortunately I failed. I mean how horrible would it be to deprive the Youtube community of _that_." I jerked a thumb out our subject of discussion who had gotten distracted by his phone yet again and was typing off a message, the look of concentration on his face almost comical.

"Say what?" Toby lifted his head, a puzzled look on him.

"I really wouldn't worry about it, many of us have thought about offing him with a strategically placed slice of cheese at some point during our friendship with him."

"Oh thank god. I just thought that was me," I feigned relief, which rewarded me with a snicker from him.

"At least now you have discovered the perfect motivational tool for him. Every time his lazy ass keeps putting things off until later just threaten him with some yoghurt."

"Hey! Not cool, stop giving her ideas!" Toby whined. "Let's go play some tunes on the keyboard already. I wanna hear this bad boy." They both went to the recording room and I returned back to my laptop only to be disturbed a moment later by Toby poking his head out. "Kate! That means you too."

"Do you want me to record it on your phone or something?" I asked wondering why he would be in need of me in there.

"Nope. You play piano pretty damn good, come listen." I dragged myself away from the table and stood in the doorway of the recording room. Sean was already sat at the keyboard and setting it up by pressing the odd button. "Hit it!"

He began to play. The music was quite dramatic sounding, the quick repetitive play of the notes built up nicely.

"That sounds so awesome!"

"I tried to keep it fairly simple so you can learn it," he smirked as he continued to play. "Then the chords shift a bit leading up to the whole baby pimp part."

"Baby pimp?" I was unsure if I had misheard him.

"Yep, this song's got everything." Toby grinned, his focus not moving from the keyboard.

After having Sean play it a few times to get used to the pitch and tempo, Toby decided to sing along. He hadn't been kidding it was very random. It seemed to put Dramatic Song to shame with its strength of unpredictability.

"What do you think? Pretty freakin' awesome, huh?" he asked once finished.

"It definitely has everything." Sideburns, aloe vera, birthdays and baby pimps-it was a humorous mix.

"Want to see if you can play it?" Sean asked, his fingers never pausing in playing although his face was turned to look at his friend.

"Aww hells yeah!"

"This may take some time, Kate," he laughed.

"And coffee. It's gonna take a lot of coffee, like Coffee Bean coffee." Toby said, quickly taking Sean's place in front of the keyboard.

"On it. You want the usual?"

"Yep."

"Sean?"

"Erm, I'll have whatever he's having because let's face it, it's working."

I nodded and wondered through the house to gather my satchel and phones. With them in hand I set off on my usual quest for coffee. There was a bounce in my step as I made my way over to the Coffee Bean and admittedly it was to do with this morning's call that Toby had picked up on. Ben had called. I hadn't spoken to him in a week or so and it had been so good to hear from him. I just wish we could fast-forward to a few months down the line when everything between us would be back to normal. Then I would have my fiancé back as well as have a job I was growing to love.

* * *

"No, it goes from D to B flat, try again." His friend sighed. Toby attempted it again and this time was successful. He repeated the sequence a few times. As he played Sean made small talk, teasing, "So.. you hired yourself little treat didn't ya?"

"I know right? It has been so much more easier when I don't have to do all the boring stuff.." His fingers faltered on the keys as realisation slipped in. "And I just realised what you meant by that. Dude, I assure you there's no erm.. It's so not like that. She brings me coffee, walks my dog and handles my paperwork. I, in return, annoy the crap out of her."

"Sounds like a fair trade."

"I'm trying to make the most of it seems as it's only really until she finds another job."

"You mean she's already looking for another job? Wow, Toby that's gotta be a record or something. She's only been working with you for like what, a month?"

"Yeah, more or less. She's always been looking for work. I just thought she might as well help me out in return for cash and another job to slap on her resume until she lands a better one," he shrugged. He caught Sean's look of scepticism. "What?"

"Nothing, that's very sweet of you."

"Damn right, I'm a sweetheart," he said, slapping his hands on the keys once more to produce the now overly familiar tune. "How's things going between you and Olga nowadays?" Another bum note rang out and he snapped his head round to look at him, eyebrows raised high. "Still not good, huh?"

"...Things are still kinda awkward.. very awkward," Toby admitted.

"Sorry, man. Thought I'd just test the waters on that subject.. I mean, I haven't really seen you since you guys were together."

"Nah, I get it. So how's Mrs Klitzner, anyway?" he asked, still absentmindedly hitting the keys.

"Noelle's doing great, although I think she's getting tired of my dressing up in costumes to play my old school videogames."

"Really? I love the retro cosplay! I wish I had thought of that."

And like that the subject had shifted to the easier topic of work.

A little while later the slam of the front door and Gryphon's barks announced Kate's return. She came through with a drink tray and plonked it down on the computer desk.

"Need anything else?"

"Nope. Not that I can think of."

"Good. I have some things to look over regarding your whole CWF vids for Fish Bowl Media." With that she left them to go to her make-shift work desk.

After he had mastered the melody, Toby went about making a recording of Sean's play through of the piano sequence so he could use it in the video.

"So I'll send you a copy once I've done the vocals and mixed it to see what you think."

"That'll be next year then."

"If you're lucky."

"Maybe I should speak with Kate, set up a deadline for you to work to."

"What so she can threaten me with dairy produce? No way, dude."

. . .

After Sean had left he busied himself with tying up odd ends of his editing duties before processing the videos for tomorrow and hammering out the melody on the keyboard until it was drummed into his memory.

"Kate! Kate, come watch me play!" he hollered once he was confident he could belt out the tune without any blips occurring. She dutifully trudged into the room, Gryphon tailing her.

"Okay, Rachmaninoff, you have your audience, go." She plonked herself down on the small sofa that was near the windows. His dog, however, still lingered at the door unsure if it was worth staying or seeking the comfort of his bed once more.

"Set your facial expressions to stunned!" he announced as he rattled off the intro and began to heartily sing the words to the random song that was still in need of a proper title. He managed to get through it without messing up once-a feat in itself for him- and as the last notes rang out, he gave in to the smug grin that had been wanting to claim his lips.

The sound of Kate clapping caused him to swivel round in his seat. He took the applause as a sincere one as her own smile lacked any sarcasm.

"Not bad for an afternoon's work, eh?"

"Not bad at all, maestro."

"Okay, so time to double check that the evil Mac machine has saved Sean's recording under the right thingy." He drifted from the keyboard to the computer.

"Sounds technical, I'll be out of your way."

"Nope!" He turned to look at her to see she was on her feet. "You wanna be a good assistant? Play some music for me." He pointed at the now unoccupied keyboard seat beside him.

"Seriously? I still have work to do, Toby."

"And your job is to help me do my job. My creativity flourishes better with music."

"So do plants," she quipped.

"Then hop to it 'cause that plant's been lookin' a little limp for a while now." He pointed at the wilted purple orchid that sat on the cabernet desk on his right.

"You know you are actually supposed to water them, that helps too."

"Music first, water later."

"Ugh, fine." She slumped down on the seat and placed her hands on the keys pausing as she considered what to play.

After a long minute or so, almost so long he wanted to remind her of his initial request of playing, the keyboard began to fill the small room with music. A Chopin piece, followed by Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' which she managed to get through for a while until fumbling and giving up with a curse, a clear indicator it had been a while since she had rattled that one out on the keys.

"Don't you know anything more current?" he snorted.

"I don't do requests," she retorted. "We mainly got drilled the usual classical pieces. That's why Jen hate's playing piano." She continued in playing, reattempting the Beethoven piece, later on in the sequence at a point where she remembered the notes once more.

"But she has a piano, right? I used to hear you play it every day when you lived there."

"She says it's a purely aesthetical piece."

"Ha! My guitar's getting like that nowadays," he chuckled as he jabbed at a few keys on his keyboard. After a moment of listening to her fumble with the notes he turned his head, "Come on, dude, you're making a mess of that."

"I haven't played it in years!"

"Play something else then."

Her hands paused once more, the last notes struck ringing out as she mulled over what to play next. The computer before him pinged, bringing up the document he had been after and so Toby's attention flitted from her to the screen. The room was soon filled with music as she played a slower tune. He frowned at its vague familiarity attempting to place it but coming up blank. It was a wonderful melancholy type of song, its notes conveying gloom with a hint of hope at the same time.

"What is that? I'm sure I've heard it before." He turned to watch her play. Though her eyes were cast down to look upon her gliding fingers and the keys, he noted there was no concentration marking her brow, again that soft faraway expression was upon her. He almost felt guilty in thinking the melody actually suited her current demeanour.

"Have you ever seen Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind?"

"Erm.." He attempted to recall.

"The one with Jim Carrey in it but he's acting serious for once."

"Oh! And that chick from Titanic is in it too and she has crazy coloured hair."

"Yep, that's the one. This is the theme to it." He nodded not wanting to interrupt her further and watched as she played the piece. It was his turn to clap when he she finished.

"You're so gonna have to teach me how to play that," he enthused. She glanced at her watch.

"Not tonight though, it's gone eight and I still have work to do."

"Ugh, fine, some other time."

* * *

I couldn't really enjoy my morning routine of singing in the shower or happily weaving through morning traffic today. The correspondence I had been having with Toby's employers for his 'Cute Win Fail' videos was starting to cause me some concern. I had the horrible feeling they were looking to drop him. I was still attempting to make heads and tails of it as I pulled up to the kerb in front of Toby's house. No Jen today, it would seem I had missed her leave this morning. I would no doubt catch her tomorrow for the daily moan about work and what part of the house she wished to gut next.

Opening the door, I trudged into the dark to the lounge to plonk my things down and open all the blinds and curtains. Gryphon weaved through my legs as I did so, making me stop and stumble every few paces as not to step on his little paws or fluffy tail.

"Toby! Get up! I'm taking Gryph out!" I hollered down the corridor that led to his room.

No reply or protest rang out in response. I shrugged it off, snapped on the leash to Gryphon's collar and left.

Returning from the jaunt to the Coffee Bean, I entered ready to continue in my usual morning call to get him up and out of bed only to find he was slumped on the sofa still in his pyjamas. He was half-heartedly eating a breakfast cereal that had such an array of artificial colourings to it, it was turning the almond milk a rainbow of chemical hues.

"Morning." I greeted as I sort to unclasp the leash from Gryphon's collar. Once free the shih-tzu trotted off to his food bowl in search of his own breakfast.

"Hey." He returned with a smile. I couldn't help but notice it was a rather subdued substitute to the usual mega-watt grin he had a habit of always pulling.

"Not going for a run today?" I set his coffee down on the coffee table next to his now abandoned cereal bowl.

"Nah, didn't really feel like it." He shrugged.

"Okay, but you're back on it tomorrow right?"

"Yep."

"So today we really need to go over your Fish Bowl Media stuff and I need to try and get hold of the landlord for this place because that alarm system is still on the fritz," I said as I flipped through my work cell to bring up any other tasks that needed to be taken care of today.

"'kay. I'm gonna do the usual first though." He got to his feet and padded through to the recording room.

"Erm, Toby? I know you like to switch up your outfits every now and then but you're still in your jammies. I think your Audience is going to notice that."

"Oh right!" He came back through and meandered off down to the back of the house were his bedroom was. "Better go Buscus up." It was obvious he was distracted by something else. I just hoped he wasn't worrying about the whole CWF stuff. I'm sure that Fish Bowl Media wouldn't get rid of him so hastily, I mean he was easily meeting the required quota of video views they wanted for each of his episodes for them.

As the day drew on I decided I was in need of another hit of caffeine and so went to make some in the kitchen. As always Gryphon was around my ankles in hope he'd get a treat.

"Nah-uh, you know he saves giving you a treat until he vlogs so then that way everyone gets to see your grumpy little face." I cooed at him whilst waiting for the coffee to percolate. When it had finally brewed I poured two cups full of the stuff and wandered over to the recording room.

To my surprise I found it empty. I turned my head to see that he was outside. I stood at the French doors for a moment. Toby was sat on the edge of the decking, his back to me, head bowed, concentration probably to his phone. His shoulders were slumped. _What was up with him today?_

I juggled the mugs awkwardly, clutching them in one hand so I could open the door.

"Hey slacker, I brought you some coffee," I announced as I paced over to join him. He glanced over his shoulder at me. Carefully folding to my knees, I sat myself down next to him and handed him a mug. He placed his phone on the decking at his other side and accepted the offering with a thank you. We sat still and silent for a while, me squinting up at the cloud marbled sky, him staring at the contents of his mug.

"So…" I ventured.

"So?"

"Wanna tell me what's bothering you today?" His head jerked round to look at me. I lowered my gaze from the sky to regard him.

"Well…" His hand was in his hair, ruffling it as he mulled the matter over. "Do remember, like a while back, when you were still staying next door and we would have the usual coffee mornings? There was that one day I came round and your eyes were really red like you had been crying but you passed it off as allergies and I just went along with it even though I knew something was wrong because you weren't wearing your engagement ring anymore…"I felt my eyes widen at the memory of that day. The fingers of my right hand instinctively snaked to the still bare ring finger on my left. "Today is kinda one of those days for me."

"That's crappy. Sorry."

"Don't be, this kind of stuff happens to everyone, right?"

"Definitely." There was a pause. "You want to talk about it?"

"You wanna talk about yours?"

"No."

"Me neither."

"Tell you what.." I playfully nudged his shoulder with my own. "I'm feeling generous today so how about we ditch work for the afternoon and I teach you how to play that song now followed by the rain check we had on that Netflix fest?"

"That would be awesome," he smiled.

The Cute Win Fail thing could wait until another day, I couldn't drop that worry on him today.


	12. Chapter 11: Eau Du Budweiser

**Author's Notes:**

Oh my god! I can't get those 'Get Bloody' lyrics out of my head at the moment...especially when I'm stuck at work! Anyhoo, as always thanks for the reviews, follows and favs. 11DrLuv, I'm liking the usage of Tate! :) There's plenty of Tate moments as we get to go party this chapter!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus, Gryphon, Gabe, Jacksfilms, Sean Klitzner, Olga Kay, Roxy- rah, you get the idea, I don't own anyone you recognise! Budweiser does not_ Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 11: Eau de Budweiser **

After the 'allergy' day, Toby was back to his perky, peculiar self. The week went by quickly despite the same old routine.

"You reviewed those clips for CWF yet?" I asked from my usual spot in front of my laptop.

"Yeah, I'm just typing up some stuff for it now."

He was pacing around, phone in hand apparently writing out a script for a possible video. He always seemed to drift about when on his phone, whether it was writing, vlogging or even taking calls. Admittedly at first I had found it irritating having him aimlessly wander back and forth as it was distracting, now I had grown accustomed to his strange roaming.

"When are you going to start filming it?"

"Tomorrow… maybe."

"Toby," I said disapprovingly.

"What? I got a lot of game stuff to do too."

"And what's happening with that song about sideburns? Have you even sent the rough audio cut to Sean yet?"

"Erm… I'm getting to it."

"I swear I really will start threatening you with yoghurt," I sighed.

"Chill, dude, no need to break out the dairy," He smiled. "I'll probably bump into Sean tonight anyhow so I'll tell him all about it then."

"He coming over again?"

"Oh yeah…" He paused in his pacing, an overly guilty look on him. "I kinda forgot to tell you... we're off to a party tonight so if you got plans- cancel them!"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Erm.. nope. A friend of Seth's is throwing this big ass party and there's going to be a lot of internet and film people there."

"And you want me to go with you…" My mind was quickly reeling up reasons that I could slap at the end of that sentence. "So you can gloat you have an assistant?"

"No!" A typical Toby laugh sounded out. "No, I just thought it might be an easy way for you to get acquainted with Youtube people. Well, that and I'll need someone to bring me beer throughout the night!"

"Honestly, I half-expected that."

"I'm hurt."

"You'll get over it."

. . .

The doorbell rang as I was stood in Toby's bathroom in front of the sink. My concentration was to my reflection as I thickened the eyeliner already decorating my upper lash line and winging it out into a cat eye look. Toby had reassured I didn't really need to go all the way home to change as the party was a typical 'bring your own booze' kind of house party. I remained in my skinny jeans, strappy chiffon top and sandals.

"Kate! Kate, come on!" he excitedly hollered, his voice carrying from the lounge.

"Yeah!" I called back as I quickly swept a nude pink lipstick over my lips.

Satisfied with my make-up, my attention went to my hair as I pulled it down from the braid it had been weaved in all day. It caused it to have a slight wave to its length. The whole day-to-night transformation had taken less than 10 minutes. In my triumph I smugly wondered if the likes of Kayla or Jen could have fared as well given such a challenge. With lipstick and eyeliner shoved back into my little satchel, I slung it over my shoulder and strolled through the house just in time to overhear my boss complaining to his visitor. He was a big guy, both in stature and bulk- he clearly knew his way around the gym.

"Geez what is it with chicks and taking _so_ freaking long in the bathroom?"

"Oh please, you spent the last hour wondering just which coloured Tobuscus t-shirt to wear with those fetching checked trousers." I scoffed stopping at his side, arms folded over my chest.

"I think that's more down to him becoming easily distracted rather than being fashion conscious though." The other guy commented also giving Toby's chosen outfit the once over. It seemed Toby had finally settled on a black Tobuscus t-shirt.

"I'll have you know I was actually the one who came up with the whole 'geek chic' fashion statement." He had a pair of green shades pushed back into his messy hair. Their blocky design looked like they belong out of one of those computer games he liked so much.

"I see the geek, where's the chic part at?" The guy leaned forward slightly and squinted at Toby as if in search of such a thing.

A smirk pulled at my lips.

"Oh I have to be very careful. I only like to combine the two when my geekification isn't at the max. Don't want any fainting fashionistas and what not."

"How considerate of you." I turned my attention back to the guy. "Hi, I'm Kate."

"Gabe." He returned with a smile.

"And I'm Toby! Great, now we all know who's who can we _please_ go? I'm getting pretty desperate to throw some moves!" He flapped his hands in the strange dance he favoured.

"Alright, let's go before John Travolta blows a fuse." Gabe smiled.

I attempted to stifle my snickering but failed miserably.

. . .

The party was already in full swing by the time we got there due to us having to stop off to buy booze and Toby getting distracted by attempting to pronounce some of the foreign brands. The large lounge was full of people talking and drinking, sofas had been pushed back against walls so that there was more room and most of the seats were already occupied by party goers. Bowls of chips and snacks dotted about on chair arms and coffee tables. I turned my head to see there was even some dancing going on across the hall in the dining room, people taking advantage of the pop and dubstep tunes that were blasting out of an impressive looking stereo system.

"Wow, there sure are a lot of people." I couldn't really remember the last time I had been to a house party this crowded, probably when I was in college.

"Yep. You've only really dipped your toe into the shallows of Youtube, time you took a dive into the deep end, sister!" he beamed at me. I was about to respond with a smile of my own when he spotted someone a way off over my shoulder. "Jack! Hey Jack!" He excitedly waved his arms in hope to catch his attention. I looked over to see a guy with reddy brown hair turn slightly to look over at us. I could see Sean was stood with him.

"Jacksfilms, right?" I asked.

"Come on, let's go say hi." He took off through the throngs of partiers, me and Gabe following.

"Hey, didn't think you were going to show," Jack greeted, slapping a hand on Toby's shoulder. I noticed he was wearing his 'Biches' t-shirt.

"Yeah, you know how long girls take to get ready and stuff, it so totally wasn't my fault for a change." He rolled his eyes and jerked a thumb at me and Gabe. Gabe's eyes narrowing in mock annoyance was his response. Before I could protest my innocence he asked, "Speaking of which, where's Kristen at? She here?"

"Nope. She really wanted to but got tied up with work stuff." He turned to Gabe and said 'hi' before regarding me. "Hey, I'm Jack."

"Kate."

"She's my assistant," Toby added proudly.

"Yeah, Sean was telling me you hired an assistant."

"It's awesome. Check this out." He cleared his throat for dramatic effect. "Kate, go fetch me a beer."

"You have a carrier full in your hand." I motioned to the plastic carrier bag holding a six pack.

"Yeah but I require a kitchen beer, go get me one." I sighed and turned to make my through to the kitchen. "Here, take this with you." He jutted his hand out, the carrier swaying slightly.

I retrieved it from him saying to Jack, "He beats me you know." I scampered off. It was a clear reference to Gryphon who always claimed the same whenever he was on camera.

Jack chuckled whilst Toby joined in with the laughter casually adding,"I don't pay her either."

Leaving them, I weaved through the clusters of chatting people in the direction of where I imagined the kitchen to be. After being pointed in the right direction by a tipsy girl who had stopped me to compliment 'cute top', I finally found it. It was equally as impressive as the other parts of the house I had seen. Decked out in a sleek modern style the kitchen even had an island in the centre, which currently had black buckets crammed with ice and beer sat atop it. I pulled the pack from the bag and went about stuffing them in the ice so that they would eventually chill. _Take a beer, leave a beer_.

Just as I was going to pull a few frosted bottles from the ice, a little bundle of fur was at my ankles yapping and wiggling in excitement. A dog! I removed my fingers from the ice, wiping them on my jeans before stooping to scoop up the dog.

"Hey, cutie! What on earth are you doing here?" The little black and brown dog rattled off a string of excited barks in response. "Oh, gettin' drunk, huh?" I ruffled its ears looking it over. It was a shih-tzu, just like Gryphon, though this one had a cheerier face.

I glanced around in hopes to find the owner but only people milling about in search of a drink or more snacks occupied the kitchen. Maybe the dog belonged to the guy whose party it was. The problem was I had no idea what he looked like and I had only ever seen Seth on Youtube. I decided to take it with me as I returned back to Toby and the others. With beers skilfully gripped in one hand (bartending techniques came very much in handy at times like this), little dog carefully cradled in my other arm I moved around the island.

"Roxy? Roxy, baby where are you?" Came a girl's voice, there was a strange twang to it. A moment later I spotted her among the crowd. Roxy barked in response to her calling and the girl's head whipped round to see me holding her pet. "Roxy!" She hurried over to us.

She was cute with fair skin, brown hair and big blue eyes that she accentuated expertly with eye make-up. I couldn't help but think she was incredibly familiar and I suddenly realised why. She was Olga Kay.

"Oh my god, you found her!"

It would seem I was the rescuer of the lost pets of Youtubers as of late.

"I wasn't sure who she belonged to but I didn't want to leave her. She's so small she could get squashed." I handed over the wriggling dog

"I know it's weird to bring your dog to somebody's party but she's still quite young and I didn't want her to be left on her own all night. Plus she just loves people." She fussed the dog, cooing, "But somebody wanted to have a bit too much fun, huh? Good for you this nice lady was here to look after you!" The dog happily licked her cheek as she spoke. She lowered Roxy slightly, hugging her to her chest. "Hi, I'm Olga."

"Olga Kay, right?"

"That's me," She smiled. "And you're the girl that came with Toby, right?"

_Oh crap_! Olga was his ex-girlfriend, she was probably currently thinking I was interested in him or something. I suddenly noticed that even though the smile at her lips was friendly and genuine there was a glimpse of distrust in her eyes. She was sizing me up, very subtly but still it unnerved me that she would consider me and him an item so easily.

"I'm his assistant, Kate. The Assitantzor- his choice of job title, not mine," I rambled quickly wanting to straighten out her assumption.

The tension that had built so suddenly was wiped away by my words. I could tell by how her smiled broadened and by how her shoulders weren't set so stiffly anymore. Thank god, the last thing I needed was to be unwillingly involved in some Youtube couple's awkward break-up. I had enough on my plate with my own out-of-whack love life!

"You mean the assistant thing was real? I just thought he had decided to use another imaginary person, like his Steven."

"Nope." I held up the three beer bottles still clutched in my hand "See, I have the lovely task of fetching his beer."

"Oh you poor thing!" she laughed. "How have you not killed him yet?"

"Actually…" I went on to tell her of the two events that landed Toby in the emergency room.

Despite having Toby in common the topic of conversation soon drifted to the usual girly chit-chat after I complimented her on her outfit- a little black dress that flared out nicely at the skirt, teamed with sandals and a red headband. It was as we talked Toby strolled into the kitchen. He was quick to locate me and approached us seemingly unaware who I was with due to his ex-girlfriend having her back to him.

"Are you brewing the beer yourself or what dude?" he asked as he neared. Olga turned at the sound of his voice and he stopped dead in his tracks. For a split second he looked like a deer caught in the headlights before he recovered with a smile. "Hey, long time no see."

"Hello Toby," Olga said, her lips quickly forming that friendly smile she favoured. "It's actually my fault Kate is taking so long. She was telling me how you keep giving her silly tasks like bringing your beer."

"That's 'cause she needs to 'level up' before I can give here the more serious stuff."

"Level up?" I rolled my eyes. "Well, I better go and get some practice then. If you'll excuse me, I think I better take Gabe and the gang some beers." I discarded the now warm bottles back into the ice bucket and selected some more.

It was probably best to leave them alone to talk anyway. With beer in hand, I moved to leave but Toby swiftly took my arm.

"Whoa, no need to go farming for EXP points, missy, they've already got drinks. They got kinda tired waiting for you to return even though I did reassure them you were a waitress once."

His blathering could easily have been mistaken as a humorous attempt to smooth over him unintentionally offending me yet due to the grip on my arm the message was clear to me he didn't want me wandering off to leave him alone with Olga. Looks like I was stuck being a third wheel in whatever the hell this was.

"Fine. Here, your beer."

"Why thank you!" His hand went from my arm to take the offered bottle. He fumbled slightly. "Damn thing's slippy."

I fought back a smile, though the bottle was indeed slick with condensation and ice melt I could tell the real reason why he had nearly dropped it. It was the same reason why he didn't want me to leave- he was nervous! Roxy yapped and Toby snapped his head up from scrutinizing the bottle.

"You brought Roxy?"

"I didn't want to leave her on her own, she gets so stressed if I leave her at night."

"But she's getting so big."

"You mean she was actually smaller than that?" I asked. The shih-tzu was probably just coming out of its puppy stage but I couldn't imagine it being any smaller, she looked tiny compared to Gryphon.

"Oh sure, I have some pictures of her when she was really little." Olga moved to attempt to get her phone out of her little shoulder bag.

Toby stepped forward.

"Here, lemme take her."

"Thank you." She handed the black and brown fluff ball over to him and Roxy fidgeted animatedly in his arms, squirming up to lick at his face. "Awww, she loves Toby."

"Oh course she does, I smell like Gryphon." He laughed while the dog lapped at his chin.

Olga concentrated on her phone for a few brief moments before showing me it.

"This is her when I first got her." The photo showed Olga holding the little shih-tzu puppy in just in one hand, the puppy was half asleep.

"Oh my god! She's so cute!"

"That's nothin' you should have seen Gryphon when he was little, he was the cutest thing ever."

"Yeah but he is old now," Olga teased, pocketing the phone.

"Trust me- my dog out-cutes yours." He looked down at Roxy who was no licking one of the hands holding her. "No offense, Roxy."

We moved from the kitchen to join the others who were still in the packed out living room. The night went on and Olga decided to turn in early due to having Roxy with her. There were so many people that I got introduced to (some recognisable Youtube faces, others friends or off-to-the-side helpers like myself) that I struggled to remember everyone's name. However on the way back from the bathroom I bumped into a familiar one.

"Rory!" I smiled. I had spoken to him a few times since our initial meeting all those weeks ago. He handled a lot of Toby's accounting stuff and helped out with software and computing when he could so I often had to call him.

"Hey, Kate."

"When did you get here?"

"Like five minutes ago, I've been trying to find Toby."

"Follow me, they've moved over to the pool table in the dining room." I led the way back through to the dining room, the music blaring out a LMFAO song. We neared to see Toby was losing badly at pool.

"God DANG IT! Ball, go in the DANG hole, dude!" he raged.

"Toby! Look who I found."

"Rorgonzola! 'Bout time you got here, come help me beat Sean." He turned to look over his shoulder at me. "Kate, we're gonna need more beer for this death tournament of pool table skillification."

"On it."

* * *

Toby was perched on the pool table typing things on his phone. He had played Sean the copy of the rough cut mix of the song about sideburns he had on it. They had been discussing the video for it when the ingenious idea of including Jack had come about, which meant he would need some vocals for him too. He was already excitedly planning out how the video would go for it. An energetic ska song boomed out as he concentrated on his phone.

"Man and I thought your dancing was bad," Gabe said.

Toby lifted his head to see amongst the other people dancing he spotted glimpses of his friends who were indeed shaking it. He watched for a moment or two amused by Jack pogoing about, Sean trying to teach Rory how to skank and even the likes of Kate bobbing about to the overly peppy music. How had they all gone to dance and he hadn't noticed?

"I gotta get me some of that!" he grinned, jumping off the pool table. "You coming?"

"I am nowhere near drunk enough to dance with you, Toby."

"I'll come back later then! Later!" With that we he was off, a bounce in his step.

It was he was making his way through the make-shift dance floor someone accidentally bumped into him, which in turn caused him to bump into a person to his right and spill beer on them. He turned to apologise to see that the person covered in beer was Kate. "Whoops! Sorry!"

"Toby! You better not have intended to do that," she grumbled, brushing off the droplets of moisture that were beading her hair and top. "I smell like a brewery."

"Don't worry you can tell people it's a new fragrance- 'Eau Du Budweiser'," he laughed.

"Perhaps they should bring out a fragrance 'por homme'." She moved to shake up her own beer bottle so she could spray it at him. He quickly slapped his hands over hers to stop her.

"Nah, I don't think that'll catch on. Besides cheap perfume is gonna ruin my classy Tobuscus shirt."

"Classy?"

"Classy!"

"If you say so."

Certain that she no longer wished to soak him in beer he lifted his hands from her.

"I guess now's a bad time to ask you to go get me another beer- I kinda threw the last of it on you."

"Oh that's no problem, mine's empty too."

"No it-" A foamy spray of beer sprinkled across his face and t-shirt before he could finish his words. She grinned victoriously and strolled off through the small crowd of dancing people.

. . .

He awoke gradually, the warmth of morning sunlight upon his face stirring him. He opened his eyes slowly to find he was staring up at the familiar ceiling of his bedroom.

He knew he should probably drag his ass out of bed and get ready for a day of gaming and other nerdy stuff but the want to return back to sleep won out in the end. With a sigh, his eyes fluttered close once more. It was then he felt it, fingertips lightly tracing his jaw line. His brow furrowed in puzzlement as he once again opened his eyes. He turned his head until his cheek lay against the pillow.

"You were dreaming," she said softly, her fingers still lazily snaking tracks across his jaw. She lay beside him on her stomach, her free hand propping up her chin. That wonderful dark hair of hers flowed down the length of her exposed back like spilt ink. Her rose pink lips curled into a small smile.

"Kate?" He turn to roll on his side, his face such a portrait of confusion it was probably borderline comical. He was suddenly very aware that neither of them was wearing much, in fact the only thing masking their skin was the light cotton bed sheet. He noticed how it pooled around the small of her waist.

"Hmm?" She too turned on her side, tucking her head under his chin, her ear pressed against the top of his chest. He was positive she could hear how his heart rate had soared to a suddenly overactive beat.

"How...? I-I-" It was as he stumbled to pose his question he noticed how her body was pressed against his own. Her skin against his. She silenced his stuttering with a soft kiss planted on his neck. His breath hitched in his throat. She trailed her lips up towards his jaw in a procession of feather-light kisses.

"Kate, stop." He managed to croak out, there was little demand in his tone. Panic began to rise in him. This was incredibly bad she was his assistant for crying out loud! Despite this obvious fact flashing in his head he found that his want to fight against whatever this was, was quickly being replaced by the want to kiss her. "Kate.." His hand moved to seize her shoulder in hope to cease her actions yet as he gripped her, her lips gently brushed against his own.

He jerked awake with a gasp. He was in the same room, in the same bed but no Kate lay beside him. His head fell back against the pillow with a thump. What the hell kind of Freudian crap was that? As he attempted to make heads or tails as to why he had dreamt of something so incredibly inappropriate, the results of drinking a few too many beers last night reared its head. The dull throbbing of a hangover headache began to stretch through his frazzled mind.

"What a freakin' fantastic way to start the day," he mumbled, throwing an arm over his eyes that had suddenly become sensitive to the morning light.


	13. Chapter 12: Ladies Love Legolas

**Author's Note:**

Sorry it took a while to get this up and also because it's not as long as I usually write as we had to have my dog put down this week. It sucks that poor Gryphon got attacked as well even though he looks super cute with his 'aeroplane pillow' neck brace! Hope he gets better quick!

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. Comic Con does not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 12: Ladies Love Legolas**

I could tell just by looking at poor Gryphon sat huddled on his bed that he wasn't amused by the fact that the recording room was stretching out into his domain of the house, the lounge. Furniture had been removed from it so that the boys could record part of the video for the sideburn song.

"Don't worry, It's only for a day or two, Gryph," I reassured as I strolled past him in the direction to the recording room. The dog yawned in response.

I had returned from the treasure hunt of acquiring some things that were needed for the video like a plastic doll, doctor's stethoscope and lab coat and of course, coffee from the Coffee Bean.

The sound of the guys talking camera angles and scopes carried through from the other room. With coffee tray in one hand, plastic carrier of random props in the other I wandered through to poke my head in.

The only furniture that hadn't been cast off into the living room was the computer desk, keyboard and chair. The large white curtain had been drawn and the lamps that light up the white backdrop were glowing a brilliant light to accentuate the whiteness.

Gabe was stood behind a high-tech looking camera mounted to a tripod, checking the angle of his shot. It was focused on the keyboard, which had been moved further back and away from the wall so that it sat almost in the centre of the room.

"Okay, I think I managed to get everything," I said, setting down the tray on the computer desk and handing over the bag of random goodies to Toby who proceeded to rifle through it like an excited kid discovering a loaded Christmas stocking. It was as I passed out the coffee I noticed that Sean was very smartly dressed. I was just about to ask him about the chosen attire when my boss pulled out the sheet of black felt from the bag.

"Next task- make some big ol' sideburns out of this. Make two sets, one for Dr Gabe, one for the baby."

"You're going to stick fake sideburns on a doll?"

"Yeah but not yet, we need some shots of it without them first," He explained like it was the most obvious fact in the world.

"Who came up with this whole video concept?"

"Who d'ya think?" Sean smirked into the rim of his cup.

"Alright that's everything set up. We're gonna get some shots of this goon first," Gabe said not removing his eyes from the camera. "Toby, go get suited up."

"Suited up?" I asked as he brushed past me and strolled down the hall to his bedroom.

"Yeah, gotta look classy," he called over his shoulder as he went.

I decided to make myself scarce and returned to my desk to go about fashioning sideburns from black felt. Shortly after he had disappeared down the hall, Toby returned fiddling with the grey tie that had sloppily been fixed at his collar.

"Little help? I suck at fixing ties," he asked as he held the length of the tie and lifted it up and around so it gave the impression of being a hangman's noose instead of a part of his suit. He even comically stuck his tongue out to make as if the tie was chocking him.

"Only if you promise to not use that face anymore," I smiled, setting down the scissors and rising from my chair.

"Are you kidding that's my sexy face. I've bagged many a babe with that bad boy." He dropped the tie and stood straight with that playful smile on him.

My hands went to his tie and quickly unravelled the knot so that the length of material lay flat before weaving it once more. As I worked I was well aware of him watching me. My eyes lifted from my busy hands to his face and caught his own. They darted away for a second and he cleared his throat only for them to slowly drift from pretending to absentmindedly gaze out of the window behind me to look at me once more seems as I had paused in securing his tie. "What?" he smiled.

"Nothing," I shrugged, returning my attention back to the task at hand. "I just find it hard to believe."

"That it's humanly impossible that I look _this_ dapper in a suit?"

"That you actually own one."

With the tie sitting neatly fastened at his collar I took a step back to appreciate my handiwork.

"Yeah, that's 'cause I can only break it out on special occasions, the world couldn't handle this much awesome in a suit, don't want it to explode." He gave a dramatic sweep of his hand down his front. "Not bad, huh?"

Admittedly he did look very dashing in the suit, the tailoring complemented his wiry frame and the deep purple of his shirt highlighted his hazel eyes.

"Yep, all you need is that sexy face you pulled earlier and you're ready for the camera," I teased.

"Get back to making sideburns, you."

As I busied myself once more trimming felt and going through the slew of e-mails and enquiries on the laptop, I couldn't help but overhear the guys in the recording room. Gabe was laughing.

"What? What's so freaking funny?" Toby asked.

"I never really noticed how pointy your ears are. They're like Spock ears!" his friend mocked.

"They do not." Toby's disbelieving tone rang out.

"Nope, he's right they kinda do," Sean agreed.

"They don't!"

"Come look at your playback then," Gabe insisted through his snickering. There was a brief pause meaning Toby must have gone to the opposite side of the camera to view himself on film. "See, you have elf ears dude."

"Oh yeah, well laugh all you want 'cause this means all I gotta do is slap on a blonde wig and carry a bow with me at the next Comic Con and boom- I'm Legolas, and we all know the ladies love Legolas." I could easily imagine that self-assured grin upon him as he spoke.

Switching my focus back to the laptop I found it wasn't long before I was distracted once more, this time by my iphone buzzing. I picked it up to see the caller ID flash up as Jen. I quickly pressed the phone to my ear.

"Hey Jen."

"Hey, you next door?"

"Yep, hard at work… making sideburns out of felt."

"I'm not even going to ask. You think you can escape for five minutes?"

I glanced across the lounge to the hallway hearing Gabe scolding Toby for giggling every time they attempted to do a close-up of him turning his head to one side whilst attempting to sing dramatically.

"I think I can manage it. See you in minute."

I slipped out of the house unnoticed and made my way across the lawn to Jen's place with quick steps, wondering why she had summoned me. It was a Saturday so she was at home from work but still I had only just spoken to her yesterday morning. The door whipped open before I even had chance to lift my hand to the doorbell. She quickly smothered me in a hug, a gleeful noise coming from her.

"Whoa, Jen easy, you're crushing me!" I manage to squeak.

"Come in, I've got something to tell you!" She released me but seized my hand and tugged me into the house and through to the lounge. "Take a seat," she beamed.

"You're freaking me out. What's going on?" I slowly sat down on the plush couch and continued to stare at her as if figuring out if the Jen before me was an imposter. She was so happy and bouncy it was like she had been taking personality transfusions from Toby. She took a seat beside me, her hands holding mine again. "Jen?"

"You're going to be an Auntie!" she blurted out.

"What?" I breathed, my mind quickly attempting to register the good news. "Oh my god!" It was my turn to dish out the bear hug as I quickly drew her into a tight embrace. "That's amazing! So the IVF treatment worked?" I asked pulling away from her.

"That's just the thing, after the last stint we didn't really have enough for another attempt so we kind of decided to focus on other things for a while."

"You're kidding! So you got pregnant without all that stuff? That's awesome!"

"Yep. I got back from having a blood test at the doctor's to be doubly sure yesterday. I've been dying to tell you ever since."

"Do Mom and Dad know?"

"Of course. They're on about coming over to visit."

My happiness took a quick nosedive into dread at her words. I hadn't really told them of my temping job about being an assistant to an internet oddball. Jen noticed the glimpse of anxiousness on my face and reassured that they probably wouldn't fly over until much later due to Mom's boutique branching out to open a few more shops along the coast. I breathed a sigh of relief. Good, I still had until Christmas to either get a 'proper' job or find some way of making my current one seem like a smart career decision. The conversation quickly moved back to baby themed chatter until my phone buzzed.

"Busted. Better head back."

* * *

It was a few days after they had finally gotten enough footage of him and Sean playing piano and singing as well as Gabe playing a doctor to the baby with sideburns that would have a career as a pimp. They were waiting for Jack to return from visiting Kirsten to film his parts before Toby could finally go about editing it.

He entered the house, the door unlocked. Gryphon bounded up to him, his poufy tail swishing as he rattled off a string of excited yaps in welcome. Toby had been over to Seth's for a catch-up seems as he hadn't seen him since that huge house party. They had been discussing the idea of them and a few other internet and camera techs getting a kind of headquarters. There was a place up for grabs on the other end of town and they could easily make the rent between them.

"Hey bunny, you miss m-" He didn't finish his question as he bent over to fuss the dog. His ears had suddenly noticed the drawl of a Kings of Leon song accompanied by the odd clatter of cooking utensils coming from the kitchen. He straightened and paced forward to investigate. Kate was dishing cake batter into a baking tin. "Oh, that's what this room is for- cooking!" he said loud enough for his voice to travel over the bluesy guitar and southern voice singing. It seemed she hadn't notice him enter as his words startled her, nearly causing her to drop the bowl she was spooning the mixture from. "See I forget because I live off take-away food and doggy bags." He smiled.

"You scared the crap out of me." She placed the now empty bowl down on the counter. He moved from the kitchen's doorway to stand at her side shoving his hands into his pockets and casually asking,

"So whatchya doin'?"

"I've commandeered your kitchen."

"Can a kitchen actually be commandeered? You didn't exactly take it by force from me did ya?" She picked up a rubber spatula and brandished at him.

"Would you prefer I take it by force smartass?" He pretended to gulp and shook his head from side to side in mock fright earning a laugh from her. She lowered her make-shift weapon. "I'm just using it for a while. You'll get it back in one piece."

"Why are you baking at my place anyway?"

"Because my kitchen is tiny and I doubt that shabby looking oven in it has ever worked." She opened the oven door and carefully loaded in one of the batter filled backing trays.

"Oh, yeah your kitchen is like cooking in a sardine tin." he smirked, dipping a finger into the bowl to scoop up some of the leftover mixture that clung to its sides. With his index finger now coated in the stuff he moved to lift it to his lips joking, "That place is so small you ain't got room to change your mind."

She turned to retort something when she noticed his finger travelling to his lips.

"No!" She yelped, quickly snatching at his hand, her fingers wrapping around his wrist and tugging it away from him. Seemingly without thinking it through she brought it to her own lips, taking his finger into her mouth.

Any current train of thought that had been in his head was quickly knocked away by the feel of her tongue against his skin. Kate suddenly realised just how sexually loaded the simple act she was committing was as she froze, her eyes darting up to meet his own widened stare. She pulled away from him, releasing his finger from her lips, a hand darting up to cover her mouth as she swallowed the cake batter.

"It's not for you- the cake- so it's got loads of butter and some milk in it and I didn't want another trip to the emergency room," She quickly explained unable to look him in the eye, her hand still hovering in front of her mouth. A blush was blooming on her cheeks.

"Oh.. right…" he managed to get out, lowering his hand to his side.

Her hand moved to swipe back a few strands of hair that had worked free from the messy bun she had styled today. He knew he was staring and was very well aware he should probably stop but his eyes lingered at her lips. Had they always been that full? How had he never noticed that before? A want stirred in him to feel their softness again. "Erm, I'm gonna go play video games and do other nerdy stuff," he mumbled before turning on his heel and hightailing out of the kitchen away from his flustered friend.

What the hell was wrong with him? He shook his head in attempt to clear his thoughts. It was bad enough that his subconscious was favouring to dream about the inappropriate lately but now his mind was currently stuck in the gutter. He paused in the lounge, looking back at the kitchen. He dithered. The idea of pressing his lips against hers was stubbornly staying at the front of his mind.

He mentally slapped himself upside the head. _No! Don't be stupid. She's your assistant- _your assistant_- do not go there!_ Not to mention there was that whole thing with the engagement ring and he himself was only just coming out of the other side of a break-up. It just wouldn't be right. He trudged through to his recording room, a frustrated noise coming from his lips. Blasting things on a computer game would hopefully serve as a decent distraction for the time being.

* * *

Mwhahahaha I'm a pervert! Also I think Toby's elf ears are cute! :3


	14. Chapter 13: Think before you Tweet

**Author's Notes:**

Hello! Thank you for the reviews guys, they really help as I'm never quite sure if people are liking this. Another worry is are these chapters too long? I have a habit of writing waaaay too much.

Stupid Fanfiction website is censoring my 'at' symbols on the Twitter feed bit of this chapter still so I slapped a + in there because otherwise it looks weird.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own Toby/Tobuscus or Gryphon. The Twitter feed featured is also real (and I do feel a bit creepy featuring it but meh!). Twitter and Cheetos does not _Sponsor!_ this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 13: Think before you Tweet and Fortbuscus Brunch**

My phone woke me in the early hours of the morning. Its tell-tale buzzing informed me someone was texting me and wasn't accepting my silence as a suitable reply. I grumbled some choice curses and groped for the annoying item. Jack had messaged me multiple times asking if I was with Toby. A frown began to mark my brow as I read through the texts:

04:32am, To KateWhite:_ 'Hi Kate, is Toby with you?'_

04:41am, To KateWhite:_ 'Where are you?_

04:43am,To KateWhite_: 'Are you asleep?'_

04:50am, To KateWhite:_ 'Kate?!_'

I quickly typed off a reply.

04:51am, To JacksFilmsJack:_ 'Call off the search party, Jack. I'm at home, in bed, trying to sleep! What's wrong?'_

04:52am, To KateWhite:_ 'Get Toby off Twitter will you?'_

04:53am, To JacksfilmsJack:_ 'What?'_

04:54am, To KateWhite:_ 'Check his Twitter feed…'_

Dread began to stir in my stomach. That can't be good. I quickly drew up the Twitter app and scrolled about in search of the cause behind Jack's worry. It didn't take me long to find it.

**+Toby Turner:**

'+OlgaKay _why would you tweet that you're having dinner at 4am with my friend? Is that a tweet-slap?_'

**+Olga Kay:**

'+TobyTurner _you could have come to dinner with us also but I think you were passed out or something. I know Seth since 2009 so chill pretty face.'_

**+Toby Turner:**

'+OlgaKay _you wanted me to see that you guys went out after he dropped me off. You know my exes date my best friends. Stop pulling my strings._'

**+Olga Kay:**

'+TobyTurner _don't worry I'm not as shallow as your other exes, just had to get my camera that I left at the party. Seth is a good friend.'_

"Toby, you dumbass." I mumbled, quickly pulling up his number and calling him.

He and Seth had gone to a party last night at some mutual friend's place. Though I had been invited I had decided against it not wanting to have to face a day of going over rental contracts hungover. So they had gone out partying and must have bumped into Olga, and from the looks of things after Seth had dropped Toby off home, he and his friend's ex-girlfriend had gone out for a meal together causing this weird, early morning Twitter outburst from Toby.

The dial tone eventually gave way to an automated voicemail recording. I hung up and squinted at the digital clock on my nightstand as I attempted to call him again. It was 5 o'clock in the morning. The voicemail cut off the call once more and I admitted defeat. I switched tactics and messaged Jack again:

05:06am, To JacksfilmsJack:_'Okay, I'm on it.'_

05:08am, To KateWhite:_'Keep me posted.'_

05:09am, To JacksfilmsJack:_'Will do.' _

I swung my legs round and dragged myself from out of bed. After a quick change and throwing on some make-up, I stuffed the needed papers and usual assistant arsenal of cell phones, organiser and keys to Toby's place into my satchel. It was still dark out when I left my apartment and kick started the Vespa to life. _Five in the morning, don't these damn Youtubers sleep?_ I mentally griped.

At Toby's I paused at the front door. Even though it was technically the morning it was still classed as afterhours, I couldn't just waltz in unannounced, even if I did have his keys. I jabbed at the doorbell. Gryphon's barks had an edge of surprise about them due to the ungodly hour it was. I pushed it again but nobody came to answer. I opted to bang on the door with my hand.

"Toby!" Annoyance was rising in me, grating down my patience. "Toby, open the hell-" the clatter of the keys turning in the lock cut my words short.

He pulled the door open.

"Dude, what the hell? It's like five in the morning," He muttered, hand rubbing at his face. He was in his pjs, messy hair dishevelled further by a restless sleep and he was wearing his glasses. He took in my totally opposite state of appearance, my being neatly dressed and brighteyed even if there was a hint of exasperation showing through in their stare.

"Yeah, you know how I know that it's five in the morning?" I pushed passed him and strolled into the house. "Because I got woken up by a string of worried texts from Jack telling me to get you off Twitter." He closed the door and followed, a sheepish slope set about his shoulders.

"Look, before you start the whole 'think before you Tweet' lecture I get it, I over reacted. I'm an idiot." The shameful tone to his voice caused my current swelling of annoyance at this whole situation to swiftly simmer down. I lumped my satchel and laptop bag onto the table and turned to regard him. He did genuinely look upset.

"You definitely could have handled the whole matter in a much better way," I agreed. "I mean did you honestly think Olga would do something so malicious? Because she doesn't strike me as the type."

"No… No, it was just a shock seeing them together like that I guess," He mumbled, a hand absentmindedly ruffling his already unruly hair. "I mean you out of all people should get what I'm going through, right?" He was obviously hinting at my own relationship failure with Ben. I felt my shoulders stiffen at the subject shifting focus on to my own problems.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't be dumb enough to post it for the entire world to read."

"Only because you don't know how to use Twitter," Toby scoffed, slumping down on to the couch. I moved to sit myself beside him. There was a brief pause as we each no doubt mulled over our relationship faux pas.

"Okay," I said brightly, wanting to snap out of my current thoughts. "Gimme your phone."

"What?" He looked at me like I had asked him to hand over one of his organs.

"You're going to take a break from the whole social media circus for a few hours until you've cooled down and for that I need your phone." I held out my hand in waiting for him to bestow the item.

"But I need it to work."

"Use your computer to work- just for today." I waggled my hand. He huffed and slapped the cell phone into my upturned palm. "After a stint of radio silence you'll have calmed down and then you can go about apologising to your friends for this whole episode."

"And if I don't want to apologise just yet?"

"No phone and you can fetch your own coffee," I smiled sweetly, pocketing the iphone.

"Dude, you're strict." A small smile pulled at his lips.

"You've only just noticed?" I laughed.

. . .

I glanced up from going over the rental contract for a small building across town that Toby and a few others were looking to transform into some kind of nerdy headquarters. Gryphon trotted over from where he had been enjoying his breakfast to the sofa. His owner was stretched out asleep amongst the cushions, his mouth slightly open and soft snores coming from him as he dozed. He still had his glasses on.

The shih-tzu jumped up to join him, snuffling and licking at his face until Toby sleepily grumbled in protest and curled an arm around him, drawing him away from his head and to his chest. Content with the attention received, Gryphon settled down to nap also. _Slackers_. I rolled my eyes.

My phone buzzed, snapping my attention away from the two dreamers. Jack. I had forgotten to give him an update on the situation. I sent him a text.

14:26pm, To JacksfilmsJack: _'Panic over, the Buscus has been deactivated for the day. Mission accomplished.'_

14:28pm, To KateWhite: _'Well done, agent Assistantzor. He okay?'_

14:29pm, To JacksfilmsJack: _'He feels like an idiot but nothing a day of moping won't cure.'_

14:30pm, To KateWhite: _'Tell him to call me when he's back online again.'_

14:32pm, To JacksfilmsJack: _'Yes sir!' _

. . .

Stood in the kitchen brewing some coffee, my mind began to wander. The last time I had been in here was the other day when I had used Toby's kitchen to bake a congratulatory cake for Jen. The awkward incident hadn't been mentioned by either of us since it occurred. My phone interrupted me from recalling Toby's widened stare. I opened the message thinking it was probably Jack or one of the other Youtube rabble enquiring about their friend only to be pleasantly surprised. It was Ben. My heart stuttered in my chest as I saw he wanted to meet for coffee. I quickly sent a reply and left the kitchen, the coffee maker abandoned.

Toby was still fast asleep on the couch with Gryphon snuggled up close to him. His glasses had been disturbed during his shifting about, causing them to sit askew across his brow. How did he manage to be able to sleep like that? I knelt by the sofa and moved to bow over him, my fingers carefully wrapping around their framework and gently lift them from his head. With them no longer on his face I noted his brow was furrowed, even in sleep he looked glum. _Poor guy._ With the glasses held in one hand, the fingers of my free hand softly swept back the messy mop that had flopped forward before lightly stroking his brow. My touch seemed to have the desired effect upon him as his frown softened.

* * *

He was roused from a deep, dreamless sleep by the comforting feel of fingertips tracing his forehead, snaking their way into his hair. His heavy eyes opened to see Kate was knelt in front of the sofa, a warm smile on her lips and his glasses held in one of her hands.

"Hey, slacker." Her voice was hushed as she moved her hands to her lap. She was close enough to him he could smell the floral scent of her shampoo and enjoy the smattering of freckles that dappled the tops of her cheeks and nose. The sunlight coming from the living room window at her back highlighted the lighter shades in her long mass of hair. "You planning on sofa surfing all day?" There was a slight shimmer to her lips as a faint trace of nude lipstick was still decorating them. His hand twitched in want to leisurely trace his thumb across the curve of her bottom lip. It was then he realised his hand had fallen asleep and the reason why was still curled upon it. Gryphon dozily cracked an eye open at him. His meandering thoughts suddenly snapped from their sleepy trail realising she was waiting for him to answer her.

"Nah, I'm gonna get up," Toby mumbled, voice heavy with sleep.

"Think you can stay out of trouble for an hour whilst I go out?"

"Where you going?"

"To meet a friend. I figured seems as I started work at five o'clock this morning I get to finish early."

"Can I have my phone back?" He rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand.

"I think I'll hold on to it for a little longer, 'kay?"

"Alright." He sighed, moving to get up.

Gryphon squirmed in protest but gave in and abandoned the sofa. Toby offered his hand to her to help her get to her feet. She smiled and placed her hand in his, rising from the floor, the skirt of her dress swishing slightly at the movement.

"Be good," she smirked, her hand leaving his as she turned to gather her things. He watched her, bidding goodbye as she went to the door.

. . .

It was growing late. Toby doubted she was going to return. It was clear the intended quick coffee had turned into a longer catch-up between Kate and her friend. He wouldn't have minded but she did still have his phone. He had gone about doing the usual of editing, uploading and was now sat twiddling his thumbs due to the lack of his phone. He hadn't realised just how dependant on the small chunk of plastic and metal he was until being rid of it for the day.

Deciding to occupy himself he picked up his guitar and stretched out on the large bean bag and began to pick at the strings. It had been a while since he had played properly, the strings bit into his fingers as he pressed them down on the fret board. Gryphon who had remained on the sofa all day suddenly perked up, his ears picking up the familiar whine of Kate's scooter. He jumped down from his nesting place and bounded to the door nails clacking and collar jangling as he went.

"Hey mister, you been looking after your human?" He heard Kate greet the dog cheerfully as she closed the door behind her. She came into the lounge. "I was going to go home for some well-deserved sleep when I remembered someone will need this to do a lazyvlog." She pulled the phone from her satchel and handed it to him.

"Thanks." He accepted it moving to rise from his seat, the guitar propped against the wall. "You have fun?"

"Yeah." There was that delicate smile again, the one that brought colour to her cheeks and lit up her eyes.

"It wasn't Kayla though, huh?" His attempt at keeping the mischievous smile from his face failed somewhat.

"No.I know I may not have the abundance of friends you do, Mr Youtube personality, but it was actually someone other than Kayla." She attempted to brush off his curiosity.

"Thought so you've got that same look about you, you had the other week when you were out front talking to you 'friend'."

"So?"

"Nothing, he shrugged. "Glad you had a nice time is all."

She playfully nudged his arm.

"Looks like you had a good day too, you're not even out of your jammies yet and it's 6 0'clock!"

"Gotta rock a pj day sometime."

"Well that sounds like a smart idea so I'm off home to put mine on."

"Later."

"Bye and no Twitter tonight please!" she called over her shoulder.

* * *

A couple of weeks later after the whole Twitter episode had died down, Toby stood in the lounge eating his breakfast of a banana whilst regarding his dog whose bed sat under the blank, widescreen TV with a look of concern.

"And they say there's nothing on TV these days," Kate joked as she moved from the kitchen to his side handing him a mug of coffee.

"He just doesn't seem right. He's not as bouncy and happy when I get up in a mornings and he doesn't seem bothered about leaving his bed. He was there all day yesterday."

"He is getting old though," Kate said also looking at the dog that was curled up with his chin resting on his little paws. "I mean kids on a sugar rush would struggle to keep up with your energy levels let alone a 7 year-old shih-tzu."

"I still think we should take him to the vet's to be on the safe side."

"I'll set it up." She drifted over to the dining room table and went about booking Gryphon in at the vets.

. . .

Gryphon hated trips to the vet. The moment Toby had managed to locate and drag the pet carrier from his garage and brought it into the house, the dog had attempted to scuttle under Toby's bed.

"Come here, bunny." Toby was half stretched out under his bed, his hand attempting to make a grab for the dog's collar only for him to shuffle back a few steps. An overly grumpy look was cast upon Gryphon's furry features. "Come on, I'll give you a delicious duck treat if you come out from under there."

"He still not coming out?" he heard Kate's voice ask. He turned his head to see her flats and bare legs in the room's doorway, the bed blocking most of his view. "Nope. Do me a favour- go get me that bag of doggy treats in the kitchen will ya?"

"'kay." He watched her turn and leave before refocusing his attention upon his sour faced pet once more.

"Here's the deal- you come to me and out from under there and I'll give you all the treats you want and promise not to give you a bath until next year. Sound good?"

"Here." Kate's feet were at the side of the bed.

He wriggled back and turned slightly so he could accept the packet being offered. She straightened crossing her arms, waiting for him to ensnare the dog with the tasty offerings. A high-pitched snort came from him as he suddenly noticed something he shouldn't have.

"Erm, Kate, you should like take a step back or something."

"Hmm? Why, do you think he's going to bolt?"

"Nope. It's just from this angle I can totally see up your skirt." He laughed.

"Toby!" she yelped shuffling backwards, tugging the skirt of her dress tight against her legs.

"Nice choice by the way- turquoise Tuesday." He blurted out in attempt to make light of the situation. Well they weren't turquoise really, just blue but he felt obliged to word that saying in. It was actually a good job he was clambering about under there as he could feel his face heating up.

"You shouldn't have been looking, perv," she grumbled.

"You shouldn't have been flashing," he tittered before once more going back to coaxing Gryphon out from under the bed.

About an hour and an empty packet of doggy treats later, Gryphon was secured in the pet carrier. Toby carried him into the car and carefully loaded him onto the back seat, slipping into the seat next to him. Kate, who was still mortified from earlier, took her seat in front of the wheel and started the car. Luckily they didn't have to sit in an awkward silence as she still stuck to her rules of blasting out music when ferrying him about town. Today's ear bleeding choice was System of a Down.

The vet had looked Gryphon over, asking questions about his routine and the changes that had been noticed.

"Given his age and his sudden apathy for walks and trouble rising from his bed it's probably due to his joints being inflamed. We'll try him on a course of anti-inflammatories for a month or so and see if there's any improvement."

Even though they had been in there a good twenty minutes with the vet and came away with some pills and instructions on how to proceed over the next month to improve the shih-tzu's joint pain, Toby's eyes still bulged at the bill.

* * *

I returned from picking up a few groceries to hear Toby's string of non-curse gibberish coming from the kitchen. I strolled through to find him and Gryphon. A packet of dog medication and all imaginable random foodstuffs were spread across the kitchen counter.

"He keeps spitting the dang pill out! The packet claims its liver flavour so he'll love it and take it no problem- what a bunch of lies!" Toby ranted.

Gryphon sat neatly at his feet, face up turned and tail wagging in waiting for the next drug laced treat he could eat around. He may have been getting on a bit, but the shih-tzu was sharp minded. He had already tricked his human into feeding him titbits made up from the contents of the fridge.

"Yeah, I got your text." I placed the grocery bags on the countertop and delved a hand in to pull out an item. The rustle of the packet caused both of their heads to snap up to look over at me. "So I thought these might come in handy." I tossed him the bag.

"Cheetos. Of course why didn't I think of that?"

"You were trying to be a responsible owner and not give him junk food."

"Wow, I sound awesome when you put it like that." He grinned as he opened the packet.

"I think you missed the sarcasm I used to deliver it in."

"Nah, just chose not to notice it." He childishly stuck his tongue out at me as he went about hiding the pill in the cheese puff. Gryphon greedily scarfed down the treat not wasting a crumb.

Toby wiped his hands on his jeans an looked up at me once more asking, "You ready to leave 'cause we need to get there early to meet up with Gabe and Rory."

"Yep" I nodded.

. . .

I stood in the large workspace, Toby's normally loud tenor rang out almost in an echo in the space. It wasn't huge, but it did seem to have high ceilings. As they walked around with the estate agent who was reeling off facts about the property, I remained rooted to the spot, my attention to my cell phone. Ben had been in contact more and more over the past few weeks, it would seem the horrible void my cheating had slapped in the middle of our relationship was slowly patching up.

A smile tugged at my lips as a message had come from him asking to meet up.

"Kate! Get your butt up here and check out this place!" Toby's overly excited voice boomed from up the flight of stairs.

I tapped out a reply, pocketed my phone and went to go see what had him in such a state. Trudging up the flight of steps they opened out to a place that was just as big as the downstairs room. The place was perfect. They could easily have terminals and desks for Gonzo and his animators to churn out the popular 'Tobuscus Adventures' animations downstairs whilst upstairs was plenty of space for any other nerdy odds and ends, camera/wiring equipment and musical instrument storage space. "What do you think? Definitely fits the spec huh?"

"It's perfect for you guys," I agreed.

With them all decided it was a smart choice they signed the contract to rent the place, which of course Toby dubbed, 'Fortbuscus'.

* * *

The morning after officially getting a HQ, Toby bounced up the concrete steps up to Kate's apartment. They had all opted to celebrate by meeting up for brunch. He knocked on the door, in a quick fire procession of taps.

"Kate, we're gonna be late for the Fortbuscus brunch!" he called seems as she was taking her time to answer the door. He was just about to rap on the paint peeling surface again when it opened. "Those are sweet sunglasses and all but it's like overcast as crap out here." He frowned taking in her decision to have donned the eyewear.

"I have an eye infection and can't put make-up on them." She mumbled turning away from the door and moving to gather her things.

"Oh really?" He didn't recall her eyes being red or inflamed yesterday at all.

"Really, really." Her voice was croaky and he noticed her nose looked a little red. He ambled over to her side, hands casually bunched in his pockets pretending to look over the papers she was gathering to stow in her satchel.

"Hey can I see that for a sec?" She turned to hand him the copy of the rental contract. His hand made to take the papers but quickly flicked up and seized the sunglasses from her face.

"Toby!" she hissed as he darted away from her, holding the sunglass up over his head like a playground bully playing at keep away. She had put make-up on today, an artful flick of eyeliner and simple mascara.

"A-ha! Liar!" His gleeful accusation quickly piped down as he noticed her eyes were red. He dropped his hand to his side. "Lemme guess, this is an' allergy day', isn't it?" His voice had dipped into a concerned hum.

"That obvious, huh?" She stepped forward and took the sunglasses from him, her gaze averted to the floor.

She looked smaller today due to being decked in a pair of skinny jeans, an oversized t-shirt and a pair of worn black converse. Or maybe it was because her hair had been left loose. Or maybe it was those doe eyes of hers were watering with tears ready to spill._ Crap, she's really is upset. I better do something before she cries!_ Before she was able to step back and shuffle off to return stuffing items of use into her satchel, Toby gently seized her arm and pulled her into a comforting hug. He felt her thin frame stiffen at the unexpected contact, her arms remaining held at her sides. He noticed that the top of her head reached his cheek.

"Don't cry, I didn't mean it, you're not a liar." Though his voice was soft he kept his tone light-hearted, attempting to make light of the fact that his assistant was nearly in tears in front of him. A small, watery laugh came from her and he noticed the rigidness set about her lessened somewhat as she turned her head slightly so it tucked under his chin. "Erm, hey listen, you don't have to come to the Fortbuscus brunch if you're not up to it. I totally get it," he said after a beat of silence mainly for his own benefit as wandering thoughts had begun to register that she was pressed up against him.

"No," She sniffed, pulling away from him. "No, I'm fine. Just give me a minute to slap some more eye-make up on and we'll go."

"You sure?" He loosened his arms from around her so that they were held at his side once more.

"You've been on about this ever since you scrawled your name on that contract yesterday." She turned and headed to the bathroom. "Besides, I haven't meant the animators yet, now's a better time than any."

. . .

Brunch was the best. They had decided to have it at Vivian's Café and, as usual, Toby ate way too much. Kate's tired looking appearance was easily passed off as allergies to the gang and they stayed long into the afternoon celebrating the new business headquarters that was now widely accepted as Fortbuscus.

Toby ducked into his car after he and Kate had said their goodbyes to the others. She was fastening her seat belt, the sunglasses pushed back onto her crown.

"Well seems as I've been uncharacteristically organised and got all my channel stuff under wraps this morning, what say you to a well-earned, late afternoon, early evening session of drinks of an alcoholic nature?" He rattled off smoothly much like he did when presenting the Cute Win Fail videos.

"Sure."

"That's it? I invite you to an epic drink-a-thon and all you can muster is 'sure'?" he gasped.

"Silly me, I meant to say, 'Aww hells yeah.'" She deadpanned.

"More like it, sister!" He fired the car up. "Bar, here we come!"

. . .

"Okay, fine." Kate sighed as she gave in to Toby's pestering of wanting to perform a prop bet that he had been working on ever since she had tricked him with one a while back. They were sat at the same shoddy bar, the surly bartender milling about behind the counter as they drank.

"Alright." He took her half-full tumbler glass of gin and tonic from her and held it carefully in his palm. "I bet you I can turn this glass twice only being allowed to use this hand and having to keep my fingers on the glass at all times," he declared with a gleeful smile at his lips. She looked at the glass, its bottom flat against his palm, fingers curled up around its sides.

"Whatever you do you better not spill it."

"Oh yeah, _and_ without spilling a single drop."

"Go on then, show me."

Toby pushed the barstool back and got to his feet, turned around twice and sat back down.

"Ta-dah, you owe me a drink, missy," he said, returning her glass to her. He noticed the smile upon her lips grew broader as a snort of laughter came from her.


End file.
